‘I love the smell of success more than petrol’: investors break with tradition in world-leading climate campaign

Investors say climate change poses biggest risk to their assets, and urge Albanese government to see the economic dangers of a slow path to net zero

Institutional investors dealing with portfolios in the trillions of dollars aren’t typically the most vocal climate campaigners. You won’t find many superannuation fund staff, fund managers, asset consultants or brokers with a placard on the streets or on top of a Newcastle coal train.

But you may increasingly find them on a screen you’re watching. Or at least their message.

On Wednesday, the Investor Group on Climate Change, an organisation representing 103 members that manage the retirement savings of nearly 15 million Australians, will launch a national advertising campaign of green energy success stories under the banner “climate action pays off”.

The campaign’s stated goal is to compel the federal parliament to back more policies that could accelerate the multibillion-dollar shift to a clean economy so the country can “continue building the industries of the future and help Australia become a clean energy powerhouse”.

Its unstated goal is to address what some see as a vacuum in the national conversation about the climate crisis and communicate to Australians that acting fast would be an economic win across the community, not just a cost.

Erwin Jackson, the investor group’s director of policy, said it was “the first positive investor campaign on climate change globally”.

“Investors and investor groups globally are looking at this campaign because they essentially have the same issues that we have in Australia,” he said.

It kicks off as polling suggests voter enthusiasm for more aggressive climate action has waned amid rising household financial stress. Some surveys have identified confusion about the government’s position on the climate crisis, given it has backed both a rapid growth of renewable energy and continued expansion of fossil fuel export industries.

The investor group campaign is focused on what comes next: a 2035 emissions reduction target due early next year, and six sectoral plans promised to explain what different parts of the economy can do to reach net zero.

Its videos tell the stories of people working in clean businesses, including some who come from backgrounds in polluting industries. The framework echoes previous industry campaigns deployed to prevent ambitious climate action.

One video focuses on Chris, an Adelaidean who says he has “gone from building fast cars” for Holden to “building solar farms at speed” and concludes: “I still love the smell of petrol, I just the smell of success more.”

Jackson said investors had another motivation – they saw climate change as the biggest systemic risk to their assets. “They’ve done their own numbers and see the costs that will come if we don’t get on an orderly, planned and affordable path to net zero,” he said.

Cover photo: Investor Group on Climate Change advertising campaign