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Vote for Hazelwood’s Engie for a Pinocchio Climate Award in Paris

November 8, 2015 at 10:14 am John Englart Leave a comment

Engie (formerly GDF Suez) is the majority owner of Hazelwood brown coal mine and power station and other energy assets in the LaTrobe Valley. It is where the 45 day minefire occurred that choked Morwell and much of the valley.

I have just learned that Engie have been nominated for a Pinocchio climate award in the Greenwashing category, although Hazelwood isn’t mentioned in the writeup.

There are 9 companies nominated in total, each of which have a record that violates human rights and pollutes the environment. There are 3 categories: Lobbying, greenwashing, and local impacts on communities. Anything goes in the name of profits!

Engie is a sponsor of the COP21 UN Climate conference in Paris. They recently did an announcement of an intention to stop new coal investment, however there was no mention about the continuing operation of ageing polluting plants like Hazelwood. See my Europe Diary: #Engie stops new #coal investment but continues existing dirty coal plants #Paris2015

You can vote in these awards (probably till end of November 2015), and we hope you will vote for Engie in the Greenwashing category. Engie is competing against EDF and Yarra.

The Awards Ceremony for the Pinocchio Awards will take place on the evening of Dec 3 in Paris.

I’ll try to attend the Awards ceremony, naturally, to report the result live.

Here is the nomination writeup for Engie:

ENGIE: LEADING THE TRANSITION TO CLIMATE CHAOS

Who would you least expect to be an official sponsor of the International climate talks in Paris this year? A company that is responsible for some of the least efficient coal power plants in the world, and has a record of actively lobbying against renewables? That would be Engie.

Engie, the French energy giant, has a wide range of fossil fuel assets worldwide and is ranked amongst the top global emitters of greenhouse gases, emitting 155 million tonnes of carbon per year in 2013 [1]. In 2015, the company changed its name from GDF Suez to Engie, and submitted a plan to restructure the company to reflect a shift towards a ‘new energy era’.

However, the change of name hasn’t involved any significant change in the company’s energy portfolio. Despite the fact that they recently announced their willingness not to invest in new coal power plants [2] and to increase their renewable portfolio, it looks like the tree is hiding the forest. ….Read more at the Pinocchio Awards website.

Entry filed under: greenwashing, Hazelwood, news. Tags: COP21, Pinocchio Award.