UniSuper,Hostplus,HESTA and AustralianSuper have significant investments in the global coal,oil and gas sectors,public disclosures show.
Unisuper,a $85 billion fund that has more than 450,000 members largely from the university and research community,said it had no plans to divest its $170 million investment in 14 thermal coal companies nor the $7.82 billion it had spread across 13 gas,oil and petrol companies,including Santos,Woodside Petroleum and Australian Oil and Gas.
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AustralianSuper,a $170 billion behemoth,has investments in at least three coal miners – Whitehaven Coal,BHP spin-off South32 and New Hope,which has two open cut coal mines in South East Queensland,according to disclosures. It also has money in eight oil and gas companies including China Gas and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp,whose parent company has been prosecuted for chronic pollution cases and multiple deadly pipeline explosions. AustralianSuper declined to comment on the investments.
Hostplus,a $54 billion fund with members largely from the hospitality and tourism industries,has investments in 26 oil and gas companies,including offshore stocks such as Abu Dhabi National Oil Company,the twelfth largest oil company by production in the world,and eight producers of thermal coal,including local players Whitehaven Coal,New Hope and South32.
"Our ownership of shares in these companies gives us the ability to engage and influence. Selling our holdings would deprive us of this important right,"Hostplus chief executive David Elia said in an emailed statement.