US investment banks line up to ditch Abbott Point coal expansion

Looks like nobody wants to have a part in destroying the Reef. I'd say GetUp would have played a big part in that, with targeted online adds showing what Adani was planning to do to the Reef. Now banks don't seem to want anything to do with it. 

Well they'd be idiots wouldn't they? If you're going to invest, would you chose a dying industry with little future, or a rapidly expanding industry of the future? How ironic. New industry saving the Reef.

A Morgan Stanley spokesman in Australia said the bank is involved only in the existing terminal and said the bank was “not in the business of providing greenfield project financing in Australia.” 

“Therefore, as we have stated, we will not lend to, or invest in, these projects,” the spokesman said. 
”We take environmental issues very seriously and in financing any project we always examine the potential environmental impacts.” 

The disclosure of Morgan Stanley’s involvement came as three other large US banks distanced themselves from Abbot Point, joining a growing roster of international lenders expressing worries about the project’s potential environmental impact. 

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have signalled they wouldn’t support new investment at Abbot Point, Australia’s most northerly coal port, potentially complicating the search for funding by Adani and India’s GVK, who want to export coal from planned mines nearby. 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, has voiced concerns about the health of the World Heritage-listed reef, which would see a sharp increase in ships navigating its shallows to fetch coal for export to Asia. The reef — a 344,000-square-kilometre marine park and the only living organism visible from space — is already under threat from rising sea temperatures, water pollution and coastal development. more