Australian Prime Minister Meets With BlackRock CEO Larry Fink

Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia (2L) and US President Joe Biden (L) speak during a roundtable meeting with World leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 16, 2023. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in San Francisco.

The billionaire is also on the board of the World Economic Forum and Council on Foreign Relations.

While in California, Mr. Albanese also held meetings with Gov. Gavin Newsom and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Prime Minister Albanese said it was “great to catch up with Mr. Fink, who’s a distinguished businessman” with a long history of links with Australia.

“Met with Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock and welcome Blackrock’s significant investment in Australia, in particular the Waratah Super Battery,” Mr. Albanese said.

“It is the largest grid-scale battery project in the entire southern hemisphere.”

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock

As the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Mr. Fink leads the world’s largest asset manager, in charge of more than US$9 trillion worth of assets.

The Albanese Labor Government has provided $100 million (US$$64.7 million) for the battery via a Clean Energy Finance Corporation equity investment.

This was invested as part of a $500 million (US$318 million) institutional capital raise conducted by BlackRock. The total estimated cost of the mega battery at Lake Munmorah, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, is $1 billion.

Mr. Albanese was in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden were also in California for the summit.

In a post to X, Mr. Albanese said Australia is “becoming a renewable energy superpower” thanks to the “certainty” given to businesses via net zero emission legislation.

“At APEC, I’m focused on Australian jobs and trade. I spoke with Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock about its significant investments in Australia, particularly in renewable energy,” he added.

“BlackRock’s investment in the NSW Waratah Super Battery, the largest grid-scale battery project in the southern hemisphere, is a sign of things to come.”

Blackrock is one of the leading firms that backs environmental and social governance in corporations. Every year, Mr. Fink writes to BlackRock investors and corporate CEOS outlining priorities in a letter. Climate Change, green energy, and net zero have been a focus of these letters in recent years.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink speaks at a forum during the opening of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a meeting of international leaders in New York City on Sept. 19, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In 2022, Mr. Fink wrote “Every company and every industry will be transformed by the transition to a net zero world. The question is, will you lead, or will you be led?”

In 2023, he said, “For years now we have viewed climate risk as an investment risk.” He also touted President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act in the United States as a major opportunity for investors to allocate capital to the energy transition.

Digital assets were also a point of discussion in the 2023 letter.

Meetings with Newsom and Trudeau

Mr. Albanese also discussed the “reality of climate change” and wildfires in his meeting with Mr. Trudeau.

Climate change has been a theme of the prime minister’s meetings at the APEC summit in California.

Mr. Albanese said we are in a “global transition to clean energy economies” and that both Australia and Canada have the critical minerals and resources to drive this transition in this century.

“And tragically, just as we’re working on the transition and the response to climate change, we’re also talking occasionally about the cooperation that we have about the reality of climate change with the wildfires you’ve just had and the fact that Australians, I’m very proud that Australians were there once again to help Canada, just as Canadians have been in Australia,” he said.

Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia (2L) and US President Joe Biden (L) speak during a roundtable meeting with World leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 16, 2023. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

After discussing the “reality of climate change” and wildfires in Canada, Mr. Albanese expressed concerns about Australia’s upcoming summer season, which has coincided with both the El Niño weather event and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole. This indicates warmer and drier conditions for the majority of the country, raising bushfire dangers.

Also in San Francisco, Mr. Albanese held a meeting with Mr. Newsom. The potential future presidential candidate has held meetings with foreign leaders during APEC, including leaders from Australia, Canada, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

In his meeting with Mr. Albanese and the Australian delegation, the leaders adopted a “work plan” on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Australia and California on climate change.

U.S. President Joe Biden (C) talks with California Governor Gavin Newsom (L) and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom (R) after arriving at San Francisco International Airport ahead of the APEC summit in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 14, 2023. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

They also discussed similarities between the San Francisco Bay area and major Australian city, Sydney.

Mr. Albanese said, “I met with Governor Gavin Newsom to discuss the work we are doing to tackle climate change.”

President Biden joked to an audience at APEC that Mr. Newsom could be “anything he wants.”

“He could have the job I’m looking for,” President Biden said, as the crowd laughed.