Climate Change: Tech Billionaire Wins Battle Against Australia’s Biggest Polluter

May 30, 2022 at 17:24 PM EDT

Another victory for environmentalists occurred when a tech billionaire stopped Australia’s largest polluter from creating a new coal-fired power firm as part of a more significant push to hasten the move to greener energy. As part of his effort to push AGL Energy Ltd. to reform, Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of Atlassian, Inc., attempted to acquire the firm in February.

AGL’s intention to split its retail energy business from its power plants was met with fierce criticism after he was repeatedly turned down in his attempts to buy the company’s equity.

Earlier this week, AGL stated that it was abandoning its plan to split into two separate companies, citing a lack of shareholder support. The Chairman and CEO of AGL have resigned as part of a larger group of boardroom resignations, which will result in a $4.2 billion firm.

Cannon-Brookes predicts that AGL will be able to shut down its coal-fired power units 10 years before the deadline of 2045 and replace them with sustainable energy and energy storage. The Clean Energy Regulator of the Australian government assigns AGL the title of nation’s leading emitter of greenhouse emissions. An estimated 8 percent of Australian emissions are attributed to AGL, which is more than every automobile on the road, as well as other industrialized nations, including New Zealand, according to Cannon-Brookes

It was Mr. Cannon-Brookes’ random post together with Elon Musk in 2012 that generated an interest in environmental concerns thanks to his Tesla. After reading an impetuous social media debate between Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and AGL on Monday, AGL’s decision to reverse course was the conclusion of a rising interest in environmental concerns that began five years earlier. A Tesla employee’s suggestion that battery technology may stop a string of blackouts in Australia’s southern states woke up Mr. Cannon-Brookes, who was caring for his newborn third child.

Mr. Cannon-Brookes went to bed after sending a tweet to Elon Musk asking whether the proposal was accurate. Mr. Musk publicly said that Tesla’s technology was capable of doing so, and if it weren’t up and operating within 100 days of contracts being signed, Tesla would provide it for free.

Over the last century, Australia has been gradually hotter, resulting in cycles of extended droughts followed by brief, rainy seasons that include bushfires. Congress has been sluggish in cutting emissions from electricity production in part because of concerns about the safety of the country’s energy supply if coal-fired facilities are shut down. Mr. Cannon-Brookes and other wealthy Australians have pushed for change in previous center-right federal administrations regarded as not taking action.

Once deployed, the Tesla battery in South Australia helps the grid during unpredictable supply or demand. A key stakeholder in iron-ore producer Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., Andrew Forrest, has advocated for Australia’s role as a center for generating environmentally-friendly hydrogen.

Cannon-Brookes’ choice to surround himself with renewable energy specialists convinced him that the company’s coal units would become stranded assets, according to Andrew Vesey, AGL’s former CEO. Two members from Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures, which just purchased a sizable position in AGL, are interested in serving on the board.

Mr. Cannon-Brookes’ purchase of the AGL interest and other players’ objections to the company’s split of assets made it more challenging to achieve this goal. To separate AGL, the company required the support of 75% of its shareholders. Debby Blakey, CEO of Hesta, an Australian pension fund with a tiny investment in AGL and disapproved of its break-up plan, says that shareholders are increasingly asking that firms play a more significant role in achieving a rapid, fair, and orderly transition to a low-carbon future.

There were some doubts about the benefits of AGL’s separation plan, according to several experts. At its last estimate, AGL anticipated that the separation would cost up to 260 million Australian dollars ($186.2 million). AGL said on Monday that its strategy was the most appropriate one for the business. But instead of doing that, AGL is starting a strategic review that involves collaborating with Grok Ventures.

The post Climate Change: Tech Billionaire Wins Battle Against Australia’s Biggest Polluter appeared first on Best Stocks.

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Climate Change: Tech Billionaire Wins Battle Against Australia’s Biggest Polluter

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