DATE: 26 May 2025
The Queensland Conservation Council and Greenpeace Australia Pacific have slammed the Australian Energy Producer annual gathering in Brisbane as the climate wreckers conference.
The Australian Energy Producers conference is sponsored by four of the top-ten polluting companies in the world, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and Shell, as well as top Australian emitters, Woodside, Santos and Senex.
QCC and Greenpeace called on the sponsors to pay for the enormous climate damage they have already caused, and for companies and universities to cut ties with the toxic lobby group.
Queensland Conservation Council director, Dave Copeman, said:
“This is an outrageous gathering of climate wrecking companies trading tips on how to further pollute our planet and avoid taxes.
“We note that LNP Treasurer David Janetzki is the only Government Minister currently on the agenda, and we call on him to prioritise Queenslanders living with the costs of climate change over the companies that profit from their losses.
“In 2022-23, these sponsors earned $152 billion in Australia, and paid a combined effective tax rate of 6.6% on this income. Santos, Senex and ConocoPhilips paid no tax at all.
“These companies are using accounting tricks and tax write offs, presumably like sponsoring this conference, to reduce their taxable income and deliver more money to their billionaire owners rather than Australian taxpayers.
“But the Australian taxpayers are the ones left footing the bill for the climate impacts. Rainfall records have been blown apart in the last week in the mid north coast of NSW. The costs of that disaster are still being counted. In Queensland, cyclones and floods have caused at least $7bn worth of damage in the last three years.
“The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather is clearly linked to climate change. Just last month, researchers in the US found that major fossil fuel companies, including the sponsors of the AEP conference, have cost the world $28 trillion between 1991 - 2020 due to extreme heat alone.
“The attribution of costs for unnatural cyclones and flooding is coming soon. The Queensland Government needs to be focusing on getting these companies to pay their taxes and pay for the damage they’ve caused, rather than attending conferences sponsored by them.
“We are already getting 30% of our energy from renewable sources. We need to focus on building more renewable energy, backed by storage, not digging ourselves deeper into a climate hole with new gas.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific Head of Climate and Energy, Joe Rafalowicz said:
“Greenpeace is handing out flyers at the Australian Energy Producers conference this week, exposing the truth to attendees — the AEP is a fossil fuel lobby group and any of its members are complicit in fuelling the climate crisis.
“Just like Big Tobacco lied about cigarettes being safe, Big Gas is greenwashing the dangers of fossil fuels, and raking in eye-watering profits at the expense of our communities and our planet.
"The fact is, gas is a polluting fossil fuel driving dangerous climate change. Companies serious about climate action must cut ties with Australian Energy Producers, a fossil fuel lobby group that aggressively pushes for more dirty gas and repeatedly blocks climate progress – no matter the cost to communities and our environment."
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Contact details:
Queensland Conservation Council - Director, Dave Copeman - 0408 841 595.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific - Communications Manager, [email protected] or 0406 231 892