Religious Group Complains To Ad Standards Alleging Adani Greenwashing

A religious group has complained to Ad Standards about environmental and climate claims made by Bravus Australia, the domestic arm of the global coal giant, the Adani Group.

The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) has through its lawyers, the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), complained to the advertising regulator that many statements on Bravus Australia’s website are potentially false or misleading.

The ARRCC believes that Bravus Australia is in breach of advertising standards because of its claims surrounding its transition to green energy, its solar energy developments, its adherence to environmental best practice and its Science-Based Targets initiative.

The ARRCC called out nine specific statements in its submission to Ad Standards.

“Bravus is at the forefront of a global energy transition. Our Australian businesses produce and deliver energy solutions for a sustainable future, both here and around the world”.
“We are progressing the transition to a lower-carbon future”.
“We walk the talk on the energy transition”.
“We believe in uplifting future generations at the same time as we meet the challenge of climate change – and we are doing it now”.
“We are part of the global Adani Group. Together, our operations are progressing the global transition to a lower emissions future – and fast”.
“The Adani Group is the world’s largest multinational solar energy company”.
“We’re part of the world’s largest multinational solar energy company, the Adani Group”.
“We operate responsibly, with a demonstrated adherence to best practice safety, environmental and governance processes”.
“Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited, and Adani Transmission Ltd have committed to net zero carbon targets in line with the world’s leading decarbonisation framework, the Science-Based Targets initiative”.

The ARRCC’s president, Thea Ormerod said that these claims were misleading and alleged they were damaging examples of greenwashing.

“Adani is one of the most aggressively expansionist fossil fuel developers in the world and has a reputation for repeated environmental breaches.

“If all the coal Adani has access to is dug up and burnt, it will generate 10 gigatonnes of CO2. That is more than a quarter of global energy-related carbon emissions in 2021.

“Some of Bravus’s claims are grotesquely untruthful and should not be permitted to stand. Climate heating is already at dangerous levels, with bushfires and storms destroying people’s lives around the world. It is contributing to poorer health outcomes, food scarcity, sea level rise, regional conflicts and the loss of hope among our young.

“We need real action on climate change, not false and misleading advertising by companies that are fuelling the emergency. We would like Ad Standards to call out Adani’s self-serving greenwashing and make the company take those statements down”.

However, a Bravus spokesperson told B&T that it stood by the statements on its website and had significant renewable energy operations in Australia.

“We are forthright about having the conversation that the sustainable global energy mix requires both affordable and reliable baseload power and renewable energy for decades to come to ensure an equitable transition for developed and developing nations,” they said.

“We have significant renewable energy operations here in Australia and overseas including the Rugby Run solar farm near Moranbah in central Queensland which was this year rated by Rystad Energy as the best performing solar PV asset in the nation.

The spokesperson added that its Australian operations are “some of the most regulated in the nation” and that the company was “proud” that it met the regulatory obligations.

“Outside of Australia, we have 9GW of renewable energy in operation and a further 15GW under construction or planned. We are also international manufacturers of solar panels and wind turbines, and we recently installed the world’s first hybrid wind-solar power plant,” they continued.

“Adani Transmission Limited and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone committed in 2022 and 2020 to meeting net zero carbon targets that are in line with the Science-Based Targets initiative.”

Last year, Adani also announced that it was committed to becoming net-zero by 2050 and would seek to reduce its absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 72.7 per cent by financial year 2032.

A decision by Ad Standards awaits.

Lead image: Bravus/Adani

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