Community members, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and Australian Marine Conservation Society will hold a Great Barrier Reef-themed beach party outside Lend Lease’s Annual General Meeting today to start a conversation with shareholders about the company’s proposed investment in Abbot Point coal port in Queensland.
They will also present a letter signed by more than 18,000 Australians and 36 community organisations that calls on Lend Lease to withdraw their interest in financing and building the Abbot Point port development and its impacts on the climate and Great Barrier Reef.
Lend Lease is regarded as an industry leader in sustainability. However it has lodged an expression of interest in funding and building the AP X coal terminal which would increase coal mining, fuel dangerous climate change and require dredging and dumping in the Reef’s World Heritage Area.
According to Australian Youth Climate Coalition Campaigner Gemma Borgo-Caratti, involvement in this project would be at odds with Lend Lease’s environmental record.
“ Lend Lease should be congratulated for being an industry leader on sustainability – and that’s why we are so concerned that the company is considering a project that would greatly damage the Great Barrier Reef and fuel dangerous climate change ,” Ms Borgo-Caratti said.
“We are at the AGM to ask the company to act in the best interests of its shareholders, listen to concerns of scientists, local tourism operators, the fishing industry and communities and reject financing Abbot Point and its impacts.
“In recent weeks, BHP Billiton has pulled out of its proposed investment in Abbot Point. Lend Lease should follow this example and do the same ,” she said.
[mappress]
Press Release, November 15, 2013