Siemens AG Stays Firm, Rebuffs Greta Thunberg’s Quest To Stop Adani’s Australia Coal Plan Meant For India’s Energy Needs

Greta Thunberg, the radical student climate activist from Sweden, has urged German engineering behemoth Siemens AG to review its participation in a proposed coal mine project in Australia promoted by Indian conglomerate Adani Group.

Thunberg tweeted on Saturday on Monday urging Siemens to stop the Adani project

Adani Group’s ambitious but controversy-hit proposal to develop the Carmichael mine in the country’s northeastern province of Queensland in Australia crossed a major hurdle last year—the provincial government has ticked off on the last crucial environmental permit, ending nine years of delay. The Australian government also approved the construction of a new coal mine in Queensland by Adani that is expected to produce 8-10 million tonnes of thermal coal a year.

The largest private thermal power producer in India, the group has number of coal-fired power plants, like the one producing 4,620 megawatt power in Gujarat’s Mundra. Under the ‘pit-to-plug’ strategy, these power plants are to be fed with coal extracted from the Carmichael mine through a rail and port link.

Siemens AG however announced today that it intends to honor its contract to supply signaling systems to an Australian coal mine.

The company said that it establish a sustainability committee that will have the power to stop or escalate projects, but the company will ultimately continue with the Adani contract, Chief Executive Officer Joe Kaeser said in a statement on Sunday.

“I do realize, most of you would have hoped for more," Kaeser said in the statement. “While I do have a lot of empathy for environmental matters, I do need to balance different interests of different stakeholders."