Media releases
Westpac voted Australasia’s best in leading environmental markets survey
Two of the world’s leading environmental markets publications have named The Westpac Group as a winner in their annual market survey.
The Westpac Group was voted “Best Trading Company” in Australasia and achieved runner-up in the “Best Finance House - Renewable Energy Finance” category for the Asia-Pacific region.
The Environmental Finance and Carbon Finance magazine survey – the most closely watched poll of sentiment across carbon, renewable energy, weather risk and US emissions markets – reveals those firms that their clients, peers and competitors have judged to have provided the best service in environmental markets over the previous 12 months.
The Westpac Group’s Managing Director, Foreign Exchange & Commodities, Carbon and Energy, Paul Verschuer said: “We are delighted to receive these awards, which we see as recognition of our integrated approach to supporting Australian and New Zealand businesses transition to a low-carbon future.
“This award is recognition by our customers, our peers and our competitors of the important role we have played in the market over the past year.
“Westpac is uniquely placed to assist customers to manage the variety of emerging risks and opportunities in a carbon-constrained economy. We have a diverse range of expertise and we are committed to supporting emerging low emission industries and activities, and at the same time helping to fund the transition away from inefficient carbon intensive activities”.
The Westpac Group has a long history of being a global leader in sustainability and, as part of its own five-year climate change strategy, has committed to an aggressive overall emissions reduction target of 30% by 2013. This year, Westpac announced a number of strategic initiatives, including:
- becoming the first and only bank trading the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS)
- securing a deal with Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX) to help facilitate voluntary carbon trading in Australia
- releasing a new risk position statement on financing sustainable energy, and
- launching a corporate partnership with The Climate Institute, focused on promoting Australian business investment in climate action, clean energy and pollution reduction.
The results of the survey are to be published in the December 2010-January 2011 issues of Environmental Finance and Carbon Finance, for further information, please see http://www.environmental-finance.com