Westpac's new climate change policy is bad news for Adani's Carmichael mine in Queensland, 28 Apr 2017

Westpac has effectively ruled out financing Adani Group's controversial, giant coal mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin under a new climate change policy..."Our lending to customers in the thermal coal sector is limited to those that have a calorific value which ranks in the top quartile globally," the new position statement said. "Corporations are wimps these days in standing up up these (environmental) activists," Senator Canavan told a press conference..."(Westpac is) more interested in listening to Sydney activists than job-hungry Queenslanders." The policy also commits Westpac to actively reduce the emissions of the power generation sector and to support a price on carbon, as well as a transition to a "net zero-emissions economy."...The policy is a major win for environmental groups and other critics who have been pressuring the bank to rule out lending for the Adani mine, which, if it goes ahead, will be Australia's largest coal mine and the biggest export coal venture in the world...Westpac is the 19th bank globally to either specifically, or by way of policy, commit to not funding the Adani project and other new coal mines in the Galilee Basin region.