Australian tech billionaire and climate activist Mike Cannon-Brookes has clashed with AGL Energy’s board over its demerger plans after becoming the company’s largest shareholder.
Calling the move contrary to the Morrison government’s push to decarbonise, Cannon-Brookes said the proposed demerger does the opposite “which is why we will be voting against it.”
“The demerger makes no sense or cents,” Cannon-Brookes said. “We believe it destroys value for everyone - shareholders, employees, Australia and the planet.”
Cannon-Brookes also noted that AGL Energy could obtain enormous benefits from decarbonisation as the economic transition would require Australia’s power grid to be powered by cheaper, reliable renewables.
“Australia should be a renewable energy superpower,” Buckley said.
He believes, like Cannon-Brookes, that Australia has everything needed to benefit from the global financial markets’ push for decarbonisation, which Buckley says will see massive investment, employment, and export opportunities.
Meanwhile, AGL Energy said the company was committed to “a responsible transition of Australia’s energy system” and would implement the demerger by June 30.
It will need the approval of 75 percent of the shareholders on June 15 before carrying out the demerger plan.
To encourage more shareholders to come forward to oppose the demerger, Cannon-Brookes has launched a website called “Keep it Together Australia.”
“I’m a big believer in AGL’s future and the huge possibilities of the economic transition that we are heading to in terms of decarbonisation,” he said.
However, critics of the rush towards net-zero believe there are significant hurdles Australia needs to overcome before renewable power sources will become the mainstay of the country’s energy sector.
In particular, they focus on the use of batteries on the electrical grid to store energy generated by renewables like wind and solar.
Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne and electrical grid expert Iven Mareels has previously explained to The Epoch Times that a large number of expensive batteries would be required to sufficiently back up power for extended periods of time.
“Batteries can never do what a coal-fired power station can... not even close,” Mareels said.
While Mareels agreed with the shift from coal power in order to reduce emissions, he pointed to the fact that batteries also posed their own environmental issues, along with the minerals used within them not being renewable.
“Let’s not forget that recycling is not that easy, and the lifespan of stationary batteries is only about half of that of a coal-fired power station at the very best,” he said.
The consortium intended to delist the company from the stock exchange shut down its coal-fired plants ten years ahead of the original schedule, and invest $20 billion to increase the production of renewable energy and battery storage.
It coincides with 2021 being a record year for solar uptake, with more than one in four Australian homes decorated with rooftop solar panels.
Over the last year, renewables generated 32.3 percent of the energy across Australia’s National Electricity Market—an area that covers every jurisdiction except for Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
In all, total energy demand met by solar, wind, and hydro across Australia rose 23 percent from 2020 to 2021.
