PARTNERS
Sponsored
Featured
Keeping AGL off page one, Longo’s warning, and other tips on ESG
AGL chairwoman Patricia McKenzie joked that one of her new KPIs is keeping the company off the front page of “The Australian Financial Review”. She was one of numerous key industry leaders at the AFR ESG Summit this week.
- Opinion
- Electricity
Energy transition is trapped in ‘approval quicksand’
The clean energy transmission approvals process has been so dismal that fresh thinking is needed.
- Updated
- Ben Potter
‘Just transition’ critical in achieving net-zero
Supporting low-income customers as the economy shifts to net zero is the next frontier for companies implementing ESG strategies, executives say.
- Updated
- Ben Potter and Lucy Dean
- Opinion
- The AFR View
ESG reality bites on power bills, boards and the Voice
When polarisation is a problem in many Western democracies, Australian business encouraging respect for political diversity and disagreeing civilly is a worthy ESG outcome in itself.
- The AFR View
Forced labour, mass killings and hacking: the other focus for ESG
The cries for greater diversity are getting louder, while companies need to weigh the ethical dilemmas of a global supply chain.
- Aaron Weinman
June
Australia’s ‘highly watched’ first green bond is coming soon: Westpac
However, the role of capital markets will shift over the coming years as more companies move along the decarbonisation pathway.
- Lucy Dean
ACCC and ASIC target ‘overreach’ in greenwashing actions
Joe Longo also warned that ‘greenhushing’ is a form of greenwashing, and engaging in it would not help companies avoid regulatory scrutiny.
- Hannah Wootton and Lucy Dean
More companies to stay impartial on Voice as referendum approaches
Westpac is calling the Voice a “leadership moment” for the bank. But IKEA, Dow Chemical, Orica and others are yet to take a position on the referendum.
- Samantha Hutchinson
Power prices to rise if poles and wires build-out falters
A lack of grassroots support for electricity transmission infrastructure risks cost and schedule blowouts, power bill shocks and missed emissions targets.
- Peter Ker, Ben Potter and Samantha Hutchinson
- Opinion
- ALP
The hidden cost of the energy transmission project
The easy part of the energy transition is done. Now comes the harder part – how and where to build the transmission needed to get the renewable power to customers.
- Jennifer Hewett
Lower returns in ethical super are about to be more obvious
Australia’s second-biggest super fund warned that sustainable funds often avoid investing in dirty - but lucrative - stocks that drive up returns in other funds.
- Hannah Wootton
- Opinion
- Opinion
ESG investing isn’t ‘woke’ – it’s capitalism working as it should
Critics like to paint ethical and green investing as a form of socialism, but buying assets to influence them is a sign of a functioning free market.
- Aleks Vickovich
PwC can regain public ‘trust and confidence’: ASIC chairman
AGL Energy chairwoman Patricia McKenzie also told the ESG Summit that she had no plans to stop using the firm over the tax leaks scandal.
- Hannah Wootton
- Opinion
- AFR Live
Climate change is making it harder than ever to be a CEO
Smart businesses are starting to realise that the cost of not acting on emissions is starting to be higher than the cost of taking action.
- Paul Polman
Having environmental targets is no longer enough: ex-Unilever chief
Paul Polman ran the multinational consumer goods conglomerate for almost a decade. He says consumer expectations are increasing outpacing corporate ambitions.
- Sally Patten
AGL chairman says ‘slightly unusual’ board is working well
The four directors nominated to the AGL board by billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes are working constructively with the rest of the board, says Patricia McKenzie
- Peter Ker
Plastic recycling push held back by lack of nationwide plan
A more determined approach including government action is needed to accelerate the transition to sustainable plastics, say IKEA and Arnott’s executives.
- Ben Potter
Community hostility to poles and wires a ‘great risk’ to energy shift
If government and business fail to secure community support for large-scale energy projects it will threaten Australia’s energy transition.
- Samantha Hutchinson
ASIC chairman Longo takes aim at corporate ‘greenhushers’
Some companies are threatening to stop voluntary ESG disclosures, drawing rebukes from regulators who say that sounds like boards want only marketing wins.
- Jacob Greber
- Exclusive
- Renewables
NSW is anti-privatisation, not anti-private sector: energy minister
NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe is against selling off public assets. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to work with business.
- Samantha Hutchinson
- Opinion
- Opinion
Boards to blame for ESG mismatch
Company directors must bear responsibility for the regulator interest and threats of shareholder litigation after allowing management to make short-term PR promises that lack understanding of the real-world challenges of the energy transition.
- Patrick Gibbons
- Opinion
- Opinion
As ESG defies pushback, we should embrace it to define future markets
Australia should identify the four or five export industries it wants to create for the next 40 years, Martijn Wilder says.
- Ben Potter
Ex Unilever boss on doing the right thing (and making money)
As the CEO who turned Unilever green, the Dutchman received many more bouquets than brickbats – even from shareholders. Over lunch, he shares his secret sauce.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
The prickly politics of protecting polluters amid critical supply race
Orica CEO Sanjeev Gandhi wants government support, and he believes his hand is strengthened in a world where supply chains are being redrawn.
- Updated
- James Thomson
May
- Opinion
- Carbon challenge
Carbon capture and the battle to get to scale
Beyond the gas sector, heavy industry isn’t rushing to develop carbon capture and storage projects in Australia.
- Ben Potter
