Coal will be left in ground, warns Climate Commission
A top Macquarie Bank executive has warned that big investors are increasingly aware that coal consumption will have to drop dramatically as part of efforts to tackle climate change, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The warning from Macquarie’s executive chairman in Melbourne, Simon McKeon, came as a report from the Climate Commission highlighted that much of Australian large coal and coal-seam gas reserves would need to be left in the ground if the world was to hold global warming at less than 2C.
The report, to be released today, also casts doubt on a key element of the Coalition’s direct action policy to tackle climate change.
McKeon, who is also chairman of the CSIRO, said the report was “another piece of evidence” showing that over the long term, the coal industry would be hit by efforts to tackle global warming.
This was despite forecasts that consumption would continue to grow in China and India during the next decade.
“The best of the resource investors are absolutely onto this,” McKeon said.
“Anyone who believes they have literally hundreds of millions tonnes of first-rate, high-emitting CO2 coal can no longer blindly believe there will be a strong market for that in 20, 30 years.
“Putting my Macquarie hat on the best of resource investors are absolutely on to this.”
Rio Tinto backs increased tax transparency
Rio Tinto has backed a push for increased transparency in the tax affairs of business as part of a pre-G8 summit event in London, the Australian Financial Review reports.
Rio chief executive Sam Walsh said Rio “supports the UK government’s call for a global push on responsible trade and investment to help fuel development and the fight against poverty”
Walsh said Rio published a breakdown of the global taxes it paid every year and was “fully supportive” of efforts to spread that kind of practice more broadly.
“This should be pursued in a sensible way, with a clear and consistent global standard for extractive industry tax reporting that keeps the focus on fighting corruption and the burden on business manageable,” he said in a statement released by Rio before the summit.
Palmer warns Chinese that 1000 jobs threatened
Clive Palmer has told his closest advisers and a major Chinese company that he will have to axe about 1000 Australian jobs from his businesses unless he receives a massive cash injection, according to The Australian.
Palmer warned that the livelihood of over 1000 employees of his group and associated companies depended upon receiving an urgent payment from the company, CITIC Pacific.
