New report for the first time quantifies the “bad romance” between arts and fossil fuels
Artists and climate activists are calling for an end to the “bad romance” between arts organisations and gas companies, as a new report from Swinburne University of Technology researchers, launching on Thursday August 10, for the first time quantifies fossil fuel company partnerships with the arts.
The report, Bad Romance: Coal, gas, and oil sponsorship in the Australian arts industry, was commissioned by climate activist group 350 Australia and finds:
The number of partnerships with fossil fuel related organisations in the arts sector has been decreasing in recent years, often in response to community demands.
Polling commissioned by 350 Australia and Move Beyond Coal has found that Australians are on the side of common sense and science – they want our Environment Minister to stop approving coal and gas mines, and fix our climate laws with the urgency this crisis requires.
National polling shows that the overwhelming majority of Australian voters want climate change to be taken into account in Australia’s national environmental laws.
In outrageous news, last week Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved 171 new fracking wells in Queensland for Santos and Arrow Energy.1,2 And Chris Bowen is refusing to rule out new coal and gas as part of updating the Abbott-era Safeguard Mechanism that is meant to reduce emissions.3
This from a government who were elected with a mandate to act on climate with the urgency it deserves – it is clear that it’s going to take a loud, people powered movement to shift Labor on fossil fuels, but we need your help to make that possible.
The Morrison Government legacy gas handouts
In early 2020 the Morrison Government stacked their “covid-recovery commission” with gas executives who advised them to subsidise the gas industry. So we started tracking how much money Angus Taylor and the Morrison Government were promising to polluting gas projects.
What we found
Between 2020 and 2022 the Morrison Government made 25 commitments subsidising the gas industry totalling over $2 billion dollars.
350.org’s scorecard compares lending policies of the big 4 banks to criteria set out by the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, which produced a briefing paper in March 2022 on the implications of the IEA NZE by 2050 Scenario for Financial Institutions who have committed to Net Zero Emissions
*NAB’s policy says: “We will only consider directly financing greenfield gas extraction in Australia where it plays a role in underpinning national energy security”; “We will not directly finance greenfield gas extraction projects outside Australia”; and “We will not directly finance greenfield oil extraction projects or onboard new customers with a predominant focus on oil extraction”
** The latest climate science shows that we need to reach net-zero emissions far sooner than 2050, with Australian emissions needing to be at net zero by 2035 at the latest.