It's been an exciting and eventful month on the Stop Gambling with Gas campaign!
In late August SIX, Ethinvest, Ethical Investment Advisers, UNLESS Financial and 110 other shareholders lodged a resolution to vaccine-maker CSL Limited. The resolution called on the company to commit to a transparent plan to move off gas, to protect the price and supply of essential pharmaceutical products.
Not long after lodging, CSL reached out urgently asking to meet with SIX and our campaign partners. Clearly, shareholders had grabbed their attention.
It was a promising conversation. CSL shared that they want to rely on gas less, have a plan to do so, and that gas shortages in Victoria are one of several operational risks that they plan for. They committed to engage further with SIX and create a public statement so that all other shareholders could see the reassuring information they had shared.
This positive engagement from the company put SIX in a position we hadn't yet encountered in our campaigns: we were able to withdraw the resolution!
Withdrawing a resolution is a pretty big deal. Resolutions are powerful tools to get companies listening and acting, and CSL have shown they are engaging with our concerns about gambling with gas.
The public statement that CSL promised is now live, up on their website! The SIX team was pleased to see in the statement that:
- CSL is “preparing for [...] transitional risks associated with the shift to a lower-carbon economy, including potential utility disruptions and price volatility affecting our operations.” We are aware from engagement with CSL that gas supply disruptions are one of the potential utility disruptions they are planning for.
- As part of their Science-Based Targets initiative*, CSL has developed a decarbonisation roadmap (i.e. moving away from fossil fuels), with more information to be provided when they report under the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards in the 2026 financial year.
- CSL recognises the need to keep shareholders informed of their progress on managing the risks from disrupted gas supply and climate risks. This includes engaging with shareholders at the upcoming AGM and continuing to report on this issue.
There’s more that CSL could do, though. Their statement generally implies that there is a risk by placing a focus on shifting to a “lower-carbon economy” and acknowledging potential future utility disruption and price volatilities. But they don’t explicitly label gas as a risk to its business practices.
While this statement is encouraging and provides substantial progress in terms of our campaign, we believe that CSL could still explicitly name gas as a risk.
SIX will attend CSL’s Annual General Meeting in October to acknowledge CSL’s actions and encourage them to continue to manage the risks gas poses. Anyone who is a CSL shareholder has a right to attend the AGM if they would like to. The company will send out details via email closer to the AGM so keep an eye on your inbox if that is something you would like to do.
A big thank you to the supporting shareholders and wider community for making this significant campaign moment happen!
*Science-Based Targets initiative: A global climate action initiation that allows companies to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions targets in line with what is needed to keep global heating below catastrophic levels and reach net-zero by 2050 at latest.
