Macquarie Group has become the latest Australian business to sign up to the global initiative RE100, reflecting its commitment to power its global operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2025. The investment bank has been carbon neutral in sourcing its energy supply since 2010 through the purchase of carbon credits but it will now also seek to develop its own projects and enter into power purchase agreements to power its buildings with green energy.
Headquartered in Australia, Macquarie employs over 15,700 people in 31 markets. At the United Nations Climate Action Summit held in New York in September, the global diversified financial organisation committed to developing a 20 GW pipeline of renewable energy projects over the coming five years through its Green Investment Group (GIG), and announced its plans to join RE100. On Wednesday, the bank officially became a signatory to the initiative, as announced by the Australian Coordinator of the RE100 initiative, Jon Dee.
Excited to announce that @Macquarie has joined @theRE100
So good to have them on board. #Macquarie is playing a big role in the renewable energy space.@mcannonbrookes @simonahac We now have the big 5 banks onboard #RE100 in Australia! https://t.co/eRz6ZABbTK
— Jon Dee (JonDee.com) (@JonDeeOz) November 26, 2019
Macquarie has a long track record of investing in renewable energy projects. Its own investments since 2010 and its acquisition of GIG in 2017 have contributed to more than 22 GW of renewable generation capacity, utilising more than $8 billion of direct and arranged finance. In one of its major commitments, Macquarie agreed to provide development capital and take an equity stake in a $22 billion solar+wind hybrid project in north-west Australia, the 11 GW Asian Renewable Energy Hub, reflecting the growing confidence in the project’s potential.
The group is now joining a growing pool of Australian businesses to sign up to the RE100 global initiative, which has thus far been dominated by the banking sector. Commonwealth Bank of Australia was the first Australian business to join RE100 last November. On the back of a 12 year power purchase agreement, CBA is sourcing energy from the largest wind farm in New South Wales – the 270 MW Sapphire Wind Farm – as of January this year and is moving towards 100% renewable power by 2030. It was followed by Westpack, Bank of Australia and ANZ.
The RE100 member list also includes QBE Insurance Group and Atlassian, which became the first Australian tech company to go all green on electricity for its global operations by 2025. Convened by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP, the RE100 global corporate leadership initiative brings together 212 companies committed to sourcing 100% renewable electricity.
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