Approximately 130 people took part in a peaceful protest on Thursday May 12 against Australasian banking giant ANZ’s investments in the fossil fuel industry.
The protesters peacefully blockaded the entrances to the two ANZ banks on the corner of Hanover Street and George Street and sat beneath the ATMs in an attempt to disrupt the business practices of one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest banks.
The organisers were a group named 350 Aotearoa, who are the New Zealand branch of the International climate movement 350.org, which “aims to unite the world around climate change solutions.”
ANZ currently has NZ$13.5 billion invested in the fossil fuel industry, which the protesters claim is unethical because of the causative effect between fossil fuel extraction and global warming. In addition, the company are Australia’s largest lender to fossil fuel projects.
Currently, the world is speeding towards the point of no return in terms of global concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In one measuring station, located in Cape Grim Australia, scientists are expecting the first reading to be in excess of 400 carbon dioxide parts per million, or 400ppm. Scientists warn that once the atmospheric measurement reaches this milestone, it will never return to below 400ppm.
A Stuff.co.nz article on a similar protest in Auckland, wrote that ANZ spokesman Stefan Herrick told the news site that ANZ New Zealand had less than 0.27 percent of its total lending invested in fossil fuels and most of that was in gas.
The action is part of the ‘Break Free 2016’ movement, a “two-week global wave of escalated action to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground”, according to the Break Free 2016 website. The site highlights action taking place globally, including a shutdown of the United Kingdom’s largest coal mine by 300 climate activists and peaceful protests in South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, the US, Canada, Nigeria, Brazil and many more.
Within New Zealand, protesters took part in civil disobedience in Auckland, Wellington Christchurch and Dunedin, with some closing down their respective ANZ branch for the day as a results.
Discussion began shortly after 4pm on the day of the protest on the ‘Overheard @ Uni of Otago’ Facebook page with a post by David Fonder reading, “Who the fuck do these people think they are? Davids about to go down to George st and steam roll these cunts.” One user, Nick Laurence: “I mean climate change is killing the planet and everything, but god forbid we have to go to a different bank on this one day of the year.” Another commented: “These people are trying to make a change, they’ve done more in 10 min than you’ll ever get off ya ass for mate.”
Some comments were not so supportive. One comment by Hamish Mabon-Ross said, “Have your opinions, but maybe a bit of human decency for someone who is clearly struggling to step over you… Like, some people still have shit to do, regardless of your opinion of their bank.”
Apart from ANZ’s $13.5 billion investment, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (parent company of ASB) has $10.6 billion invested in fossil fuels, National Australia Bank (parent company of BNZ) has investments of $8.86 billion, and Westpac have $6.33 billion. Rabobank, SBS Bank, The Cooperative Bank, and TSB Bank all have no investments in fossil fuels at all.