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 When the protest camp finally awakens, talk around a makeshift mess
hall over coal's impact on global warming competes with analysis of
plunging coal prices or the latest bank to come out against
investing in fossil fuel extraction.
"It's a diverse group we've got here and in their own way they all
want to save our trees from the coal companies," says Wallace, 62,
who grows wheat on land bordering the Leard State Forest, where
bulldozing of endangered Box-Gum Woodland trees to develop an open
pit coal mine has drawn national attention.
Wallace is happy to host the anti-coal protesters as he is concerned
about the impact the mine will have on his farm's groundwater and
says he is "deeply saddened" by the disruption to the region's
animal habitats.
Taking on Australia's powerful coal sector was once left to
environmentalists like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, but
now the anti-coal movement is attracting wider support, from farmers
to banks and investment funds striving to be seen as ethical
investors and not contributing to global pollution.
"Specifically, the bank does not lend to companies for whom the core
activity is the exploration, mining, manufacture or export of
thermal coal or coal seam gas," says Australian lender Bendigo Bank,
adding it was committed to minimising environmental harm.
Australia's biggest asset manager AMP says its 'Responsible
Investment Leader' fund won't invest in companies deriving more than
20 percent of earnings from thermal coal, oil from tar sands and
other types of fossil fuel, the same restriction it applies towards
companies that derive revenue from pornographers, weapon makers,
tobacco and alcohol.
"KING COAL" UNDER PRESSURE
To reach Wallace's farm, drivers pass through a police checkpoint,
where vehicles are searched for ropes and chains that could be used
to climb trees or lock onto mining equipment - traditional guerrilla
protest tactics used against coal mines.
Until now, protesters have faced an uphill battle to rally the wider
Australian population against the biggest names in the coal sector,
including Rio Tinto and Peabody Energy Corp.
Known as "King Coal" in Australia, tens of thousands of workers are
employed in collieries and whole towns rely on mines for their
existence. More than half the world's steel-making coal, worth A$40
billion a year, comes from Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is a staunch supporter of coal
and plans to introduce legislation on July 1 to repeal a tax on
carbon emissions, unswayed by U.S. President Barack Obama's call for
a 30 percent drop in carbon emissions by zeroing in on coal plants.
But a corporate backlash against coal is now having an impact where
protesters have failed, adding pressure to a sector already hit by
falling coal prices, 12,000 job losses since 2012, and stiffer
competition from countries like Indonesia, where wages are lower and
supply abundant.
"The concerted, well financed, and internationally coordinated
campaign against fossil fuel producers carries with it great dangers
and the potential to impose huge costs on the Australian economy,"
according to the Minerals Council of Australia, the industry's main
lobby group.
Banks and organisations like 350.org and Market Forces, which track
investments by financial institutions and the effects on the
environment, are increasingly aligning with the anti-coal divestment
movement.
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Hunter Hall International, which manages $1 billion in assets, says
it is ending fossil fuel investments.
Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, has declared it will not
finance any of the multi-billion-dollar expansion work for a coal
port near Australia's World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef. HSBC
and Royal Bank of Scotland have also stated an unwillingness to
provide funding.
ICE CREAM PROTEST
The anti-coal movement has even enlisted giant U.S. ice cream maker,
Ben & Jerry's, owned by Unilever, which dispenses free cones around
Australia to draw attention to plans for dredging near the Great
Barrier Reef for the coal port.
"Using business as a tool for social and environmental change is
just as important as sourcing the best ingredients to make ice
cream," says company spokeswoman Kali Swaik.
Since a divestment campaign began last year, Australian bank
customers have withdrawn A$200 million ($188 million) in loans and
deposits from the nation's "Big Four" banks, National Australia
Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp and
Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp, according to Market Forces
data.
"People like me who are worried about increasing global warming are
pulling our money out and we don’t want to be banking with a bank
that’s supporting it," says Dr Helen Redmond.
Redmond moved her account from CBA last year and leads a divestment
movement, ‘Doctors for the Environment Australia’, to persuade
doctors and medical students to transfer money out of banks
financing fossil fuel projects.
Activists this month claimed a victory after Whitehaven Coal agreed
to halt clearing in the Leard Forest during the winter hibernation
period for bats, owls, and other wildlife.
The campaign is best known for the incident last year when
campaigner Jonathan Moylan sent out a hoax email to media claiming
to be from ANZ announcing the bank was withdrawing an A$1.2 billion
loan for the project.
The hoax temporarily wiped A$314 million from Whitehaven’s market
value when investors panicked and dumped the stock.
Moylan was arrested and is due to stand trial on June 30.
"The government and the coal companies see him as a criminal, but to
us he's a hero," said Murray Drechsler, one of the protesters camped
on Wallace's land.
(Additional reporting by Swati Pandey in SYDNEY; Editing by Michael
Perry)
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