During Wickramanayake’s four years in charge, Australia’s homegrown international investment bank was redeployed to take advantage of the massive influx of global capital into renewable energy infrastructure.
Major banks and major miners are approaching the transition as a carefully planned corporate strategy.
Wickramanayake advocates for international action on climate change while maintaining political support by keeping old reliable energy sources such as gas until new and affordable energy sources come online He stressed the importance of an “orderly transition”.
At the same time, Australia’s participation in climate initiatives has been given global scale, particularly by placing Macquarie at the center of funding decarbonization projects in emerging countries.
independent climate leadership
Wickramanayake’s move to spearhead Macquarie’s transition is based on the recognition that investor sentiment in the new world of ESG corporate governance is ahead of Australia’s lagging political system.
Other names on this year’s list therefore include BHP CEO Mike Henry, who has finalized his exit from coal and transitioned to fossil fuels by merging his oil business with Woodside Energy. proceeded with Big Australia’s transition by reducing its exposure to and quickly tracking BHP’s future. We are facing a commodity play of potash, copper and other important energy transition minerals.
Major banks and major miners are approaching the transition as a carefully planned corporate strategy.
Globetrotter and Disruptor
Another category is the entrepreneurial spirit and globetrotting talent that Andrew Forrest brought to catalyze his ambition to make Australia a global green hydrogen power plant. His private company, Squadron Energy, has successfully completed his staggering $4 billion acquisition of CWP Renewables, becoming Australia’s largest company. Renewable energy player.
Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes has successfully blocked the breakup of Australia’s largest polluting power company and used his 11% stake to appoint four directors to AGL’s board of directors. It won Guernsey for bringing major tech-style disruptions to Australia’s decarbonization schedule. Shareholders accelerate the company’s exit from polluting coal to clean energy.
Far from such guerrilla tactics and far from the old world of banking, NAB’s Ross McEwan has not only turned around the perennially underperforming members of the Big 4, but also the much needed It has made a mark by maintaining boundaries with bankers. He provides funding to help fossil fuel customers with their decarbonization plans.
The reason Woodside Energy CEO Meg O’Neill made the list is because we’re working hard on both sides of the transition. The BHP deal created one of the world’s top 10 largest oil and gas businesses with the scale and balance sheet strength to invest in clean energy. Investing in projects involving hydrogen, solar, ammonia, carbon capture and storage, while continuing to invest in new gas projects critical to ensuring adequate and reliable global supplies of critical low-carbon transition fuels. increase.
However, the future of Australia’s gas industry is shrouded in sovereign risk due to the Albanian government’s radically anti-gas energy plan. Australia’s political system needs to provide policy and regulatory certainty, rather than adding investment uncertainty, to support his leadership of businesses that will help lead Australia to the other side of the energy transition. .
