Tell the AFR to stop the climate cover-up!

Four weeks ago, the Australian National University announced it was selling $16 million of shares in two fossil fuel companies and five other mining companies. What happened next was bizarre in the extreme.

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) went into over-drive, dedicating a month of breathless coverage to attacking ANU’s small decision. Opinions plastering its pages said the ANU’s decision was ‘bizarre’, ‘stupid’ and ‘simplistic’. The AFR has now published over 53 stories and 30,000 words, and front covers most days.

Smart people know that the world needs to leave most fossil fuels in the ground. They know already a huge transformation is underway, disrupting old energy and risking hundreds of billions of dollars in assets. Yet the AFR’s readers are getting hysterical coverage about $16 million in shares being divested from fossil fuels.

The AFR is free to relinquish its reputation as an unbiased media outlet, but when it goes after divestment leaders it must be held to account. Sign our open letter to show the AFR that thousands of Australians have had enough of their biased coverage.

Tell AFR Editor-in-Chief Michael Stutchbury to report fairly on climate change and divestment:

We the undersigned call on the Australian Financial Review to report responsibly on the biggest financial story of our time.

The biggest story of our time is not the decision of one investor – the Australian National University - to sell $16 million in shares.

It is how our society will respond to the vast systemic risk posed by climate change.

Minimising that risk means leaving most fossil fuel carbon in the ground, stranding a significant proportion of assets that draw their value from hydrocarbon reserves.

This fact is acknowledged by the World Bank, the IMF, the OECD, the IEA, the UN, the Bank of England, HSBC, Citi, Standard and Poor’s, Bush-era Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and Professor John Hewson.

These risks are real already. Regulation of greenhouse gas emissions is becoming more ambitious around the world. Clean energy is making fortunes and disrupting old business models; most global generation installation is now renewable and costs are plummeting.

The financial sector – and all Australians who use it - would better served by a press more focused on real risks and opportunities for its readers.

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