Outside Telstra’s Annual General Meeting in October, Greenpeace activists staged a bold and creative protest – complete with a Telstra-coded phone booth – to urge both shareholders and the public to call Telstra to disconnect from Big Gas and walk away from the Business Council of Australia (BCA).
Inside the AGM, Greenpeace campaigners,climate scientists, and sustainable investment experts dominated the question time portion of the event, challenging Telstra’s leadership over its ties to the BCA – a powerful lobby group stacked with Australia’s biggest polluters, which has been pushing for new dirty gas projects and weaker climate action.
It was a perfect warning shot: Telstra can no longer claim to be a climate leader, if it stays on the board of a group like the BCA that lobbies to undermine and delay climate action.
Telstra’s climate credibility is on the line
The telecommunications giant claims that “climate change is everybody’s business” and talks up its environmental record. At the same time, Telstra is on the board of the BCA, who on behalf of its members – including Telstra – has doubled down on its support for dirty gas projects like Woodside’s North West Shelf extension and lobbied for for a dangerously weak 2035 climate target.
This isn’t leadership — it’s hypocrisy and greenwashing.
Telstra talks a big game on climate, but remaining on the board, while the BCA lobbies for new gas projects in its name, means Telstra is part of the problem.
Solaye Snider, Climate Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
That’s why Greenpeace launched the Climate Credibility Scorecard, ranking a list of influential BCA members on whether their lobbying truly aligns with their climate commitments, with Telstra ranking at the bottom.
Greenpeace Activists Stage Protest at Telstra AGM in Melbourne, Australia © Greenpeace
Why focus on Telstra?
Plenty of major Australian brands are members of the BCA, however, Telstra’s position is unique. As both a board member and part of the BCA’s Climate and Energy Working Group, Telstra has the power to influence the BCA’s direction when it comes to climate action and advocacy.
If Telstra truly supports the goals of the Paris Agreement and limiting warming to 1.5°C, it must ensure its advocacy efforts match its promises. Remaining silent while the BCA lobbies for more dirty fossil fuels directly undermines that climate credibility, and therefore, their brand.
What is even more surprising is that Telstra previously threatened to quit the BCA back in 2019 over climate concerns. Since then, the climate crisis has only worsened in Australia – but it seems like Telstra has gone backwards.
Greenpeace crashes Telstra’s AGM
Yesterday’s AGM was a turning point. Greenpeace campaigners joined forces with renowned climate scientist David Karoly and investment analysts from SIX, to expose how Telstra’s membership with the BCA undermines its public climate commitments.
As our questions dominated the AGM agenda, Telstra’s leadership became visibly frustrated, but still wouldn’t give us a straight answer. We kept pushing, because a company can’t claim to be a climate leader to the public while giving cover to the Gas Lobby in private.
Outside of the AGM, our activists spoke with shareholders about how Telstra’s membership with the BCA undermines its public climate commitments, inviting them to take action and call on Telstra’s leadership to disconnect from Big Gas.
It was loud, bold and an impossible to ignore moment – which is exactly what’s needed to hold these big corporations accountable.
Telstra’s climate credibility has been challenged at its AGM today, as Greenpeace Australia Pacific, alongside climate and investment experts, called out the company for its silence while serving on the board of the board of the Business Council of Australia (BCA) — a vested interest group that has doubled-down on its support for new gas and lobbied against climate action © Greenpeace
What comes next
Telstra has an influential role in the BCA – and what they do next has the potential to genuinely shift the BCA’s position on gas. This is an opportunity for Telstra to be part of the solution by aligning its lobbying activity with its values, which could encourage other companies to step up too.
But so far the company is remaining silent, implicitly endorsing the BCA’s fossil fuel lobbying. So it’s up to all of us to keep the pressure up!
Together, we can make it impossible for corporations to hide behind lobby groups like the BCA – and prove that their customers aren’t falling for the greenwash.
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