Independent Senator David Pocock (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)
Independent Senator David Pocock (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

Australia’s biggest companies like to talk about their support for climate action, but often fail to follow through on the rhetoric, a new study has found. 

Fossil fuel giants like Santos and Origin Energy have failed to back government initiatives that would help achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, even though they’ve appeared supportive of it in their own corporate communications, according to non-profit think tank InfluenceMap.

“We’re seeing a lot of these companies come out in support for net zero by 2050, but then when we look into their actual engagement on policies that are likely to achieve these goals, they’re not so supportive,” report author Jack Herring told Crikey. 

The report looked at the climate policy engagement of the 70 largest companies in Australia and the 25 most influential lobby groups, and found that 87% of them issued “top-line support” for climate action during the first year of the Albanese government. 

But only one in 10 were supportive of initiatives to reduce emissions when engaging in consultations on bills and government strategies. 

Some examples in the report included Glencore, which fought the government’s proposed design of the safeguard mechanism; Origin Energy, which opposed mandatory national energy efficiency targets in the National Energy Performance Strategy; and the Minerals Council of Australia, which opposed introducing a climate trigger in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. 

The report included comments from independent ACT Senator David Pocock, who said the corporations were “putting the future of the people and places we love at risk”.

“We all know there is a big mismatch between what companies say and what they’re actually doing on climate. We see companies like Santos and Woodside claiming they’re aiming for net-zero emissions while continuing to progress new fossil fuel developments,” Pocock was quoted as saying. “These two things can’t be true.”