Adani's Carmichael Coal Mine Is Environmentally Reckless And Contrary To Today's Energy Markets

Fairfax - Julien Vincent*

"If at first you don't stack up economically, make the public pay for it."
This could be the mantra that delivers Adani's Carmichael mega coal mine in the Galilee Basin at the expense of the environment, culture, our prospects of a stable climate and in defiance of sound economics.

ABC spreading fake news: Canavan
Nationals MP Matt Canavan has had a bizarre spray on radio, accusing the ABC of reporting fake news over the Adani coal mine.

Since buying the coal tenements from Linc Energy in 2010, Adani has failed to secure a single private backer for the Carmichael mine.
In fact, since then, 17 banks have either publicly distanced themselves from Galilee Basin coal export projects or introduced policies that prevent them lending to the Carmichael mine.
This has left Adani increasingly dependent on the public purse.
At the centre is the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF). Since its inception, the NAIF has been something of a black box, giving no information about projects that could receive hefty public subsidies. Last month, former Treasurer Wayne Swan described the NAIF as being as "dodgy as Lehman Brothers", on account of its opaque governance.
We know almost nothing about the 100 applications that the NAIF has received for funding. But we do know that it has two proposals in front of it to connect Adani's Carmichael coal mine with ports on Queensland's coast.
On one hand, there's Adani's $1 billion bid, which I critiqued in December over a range of issues, including that the applicant would be owned by a company in the Cayman Islands and we'd need to take it on good faith that the money would not disappear into a tax haven.

Adani plans to build Australia's largest coal project in the Galilee Basin. Photo: Michael Mucci

And then Queensland rail haulage company Aurizon, an ASX top 50 company worth $11 billion, has made a $1.25 billion bid to NAIF to build the rail line.
Soon after Aurizon's bid went public it was reported that QIC, an investment firm wholly owned by the Queensland Government, would also consider backing the rail line.

Bob Brown returned to Parliament House in Canberra with Geoff Cousins and environmental groups to protest against the Adani coal mine. Photo: Andrew Meares

Since QIC manages money on behalf of super funds across the country, this would amount to a particularly crafty way for the Palaszczuk government to break off from its pre-election commitment in 2015 to not use public money to fund the project.

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani. Photo: Glenn Hunt

Rather than invest directly, the Government could use QIC to invest on behalf of the millions of superannuation fund members it manages money for, transferring the risk to the likes of retired Queensland public sector employees.

We should also not discount the prospect of Indian public funding. An understanding signed in November 2014 for the State Bank of India to finance Adani mine was reported to have been cancelled the following year, but nothing has been formally announced, and there is a real risk that the Indian taxpayer is still on the hook.
All in all, we could be looking at about half the $5 billion Adani needs to get their Carmichael mine up and running coming from public subsidies. But that still leaves a lot of private backers to persuade. Now, more than ever, we need sensible voices from the financial sector acknowledging that building one of the world's biggest greenfield thermal coal mines is environmentally reckless, but also incongruent with the direction of energy markets.
The context is abundant. Just in the past week, the Financial Times, The Economist and Bloomberg have all written about the global decline in thermal coal, the latter writing off Adani's Carmichael mine as uneconomic.

Adani protesters in Brisbane. Photo: Ben Bissett

These are statements we now need to see from prospective investors in the Carmichael mine, and in Australia, the big four banks remain crucial. Last year, ANZ signalled that funding Carmichael wouldn't square with their intent to scale down coal mining exposure. CBA walked away from their advisory mandate on the Carmichael mine in 2015 and later that year, NAB just ruled it out. Westpac, however, has remained silent on whether they would finance the mine.
Westpac turns 200 this weekend and some parts of their operations are showing their age. The bank's sustainability credentials for instance, once one of its prized assets, are looking a little worse for wear.
In recent years, customers and shareholders have questioned the hypocrisy of financing the expansion of the fossil fuel industry after committing to support the goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees. It also hasn't helped that after four years of asking, Westpac has failed to make a clear public statement about whether or not it would finance Carmichael.
In an industry where sentiment and market signals have a huge impact, leadership from private banks like Westpac can do more than just prevent a project like Adani's Carmichael coal mine, and its impacts on people, the environment and climate. It can help prevent Australians for having to pay for the privilege.

*Julien Vincent is executive director of Market Forces

Links

• Coal's dirty Australian secret? It's not coming back
• Adani head says Qld mega mine ready to go
• Adani Plans To Export Low Quality, High Ash Coal To India, Court Told
• Is This The Worst Mistake Australia Could Make?
• In The Battle For The Planet's Climate Future, Australia's Adani Mine Is The Line In The Sand
• Adani facing growing pressure on fears investors may have been misled
• Queensland Premier, mayors work to convince Adani to go ahead with $21.7b mine
• The Adani mine is this generation's Franklin River. People power can stop it
• Anti-Adani activists vow 'direct action' against mine contractor Downer
• Adani coalmine activists gear up to fight: ‘This will dwarf the Franklin blockade’
• Adani mine leases and national parks in doubt after native title court decision
• Adani coalmine 'covertly funded' by World Bank, says report