Woodside Petroleum is Australia’s largest producer of gas, and is pursuing massive expansion plans consistent with the failure of the Paris Agreement. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), reaching net zero emissions by 2050 means no new oil and gas production can proceed. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has also confirmed that limiting global warming to 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement means “global fossil fuel production must start declining immediately and steeply.” It is abundantly clear that achieving these climate goals and a stable climate future leaves no room for the expansion of the oil and gas industry. Despite this, Woodside is pursuing massive new oil and gas projects consistent with the failure of these goals, such as the massive and highly controversial Scarborough gas project. Many Australian financial institutions continue to support Woodside and its climate-wrecking projects. Almost every super fund in Australia invests members’ retirement savings in Woodside, and at least 27 Australian and international banks—including ANZ and Westpac—have provided finance to the company since 2018. Many of these financial institutions claim to support the Paris Agreement and net zero emissions by 2050, yet continue to support a company pursuing plans consistent with the failure of these goals.
Woodside is undermining a stable climate future by pursuing new oil and gas projects. Our super funds and banks must stop investing in Woodside and its climate-wrecking projects and plans now.
◦ See if your super fund has ruled out Woodside
◦ See which banks have loaned to Woodside
TAKE ACTION! Tell your super fund to stop investing in Woodside and its climate-wrecking expansion plans
The super funds failing to rule out investment in Woodside
Almost every single Australian super fund invests in Woodside, using members’ retirement savings to support its climate-wrecking projects and plans. A handful of super funds have either substantially divested from, have some form of exclusion on, or have plans to phase out oil and gas producers, meaning that we are starting to see a trickle of divestment from Woodside. However, this divestment is not happening at the scale nor pace commensurate with the climate crisis we face, and all super funds need to exclude companies like Woodside from their portfolios altogether. Of Australia’s biggest 40 super funds by assets under management (AUM), not a single one has implemented a fund-wide exclusion on companies expanding the scale of the oil and gas industry, meaning these funds are using members’ retirement savings to support Woodside’s massive expansion plans. Worse still, several super funds have voted against shareholder proposals calling on Woodside to wind up its oil and gas production in line with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. We have also calculated and presented the below funds’ investments in Woodside as a proportion of each fund’s total allocation to Australian listed equities (shares listed on the Australian stock market), as this allows for direct comparison between funds. Other data points, such as investment exposure as a proportion of the total fund, or dollar value of investments in these companies are incomparable because funds have different allocations to Australian listed equities and different amounts of money in the investment pool.
◦ Has your super fund failed to rule out investment in Woodside? Check the list below and take action!
◦ Investment exposure to Woodside and proxy voting behaviour of Australia’s biggest super funds by assets under management