The asset management arm of Macquarie Group, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), has received another sizeable chunk of finance from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for emissions reduction and energy efficiency projects across airports, electricity, port, rail, water and other infrastructure sectors.
The state-owned corporation is investing $100 million towards projects targeting lower carbon emissions and improved energy efficiency across various infrastructure assets.
The new finance follows a $100 million commitment in February 2018 for Macquarie Bank’s agricultural platform for energy efficiency and low emissions technology projects in farming.
Macquarie Bank attracted controversy earlier this year when it’s farm cropping enterprise, Viridis Ag, undertook land clearing to make way for its precision farming techniques.
The company told The Fifth Estate at the time it was planting more than 10 times the number of native trees and shrubs it removed at the Englefield Plains farmland site, and had committed to a long-term, dedicated conservation area of 61 hectares.
CEFC chief executive officer Ian Learmonth said infrastructure accounts for nearly half of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
“Investors and asset managers are more aware than ever that cutting emissions requires timely action across the economy, especially in a sector as substantial as infrastructure,” Mr Learmonth said.
The financing will go towards a range of technologies and strategies for cutting emissions in infrastructure, such as solar PV and battery installations and energy efficiency upgrades.
Specific opportunities for airports include efficient baggage handling systems and the fixed ground power and preconditioned air at airports.
Other options include monitoring insulator gas loss to minimise transport and distribution resistance loss, demand management at transport and distribution assets, and swapping out fossil fuel vehicle fleets with electric vehicles.
Exactly. The public would rightfully think that the funds were going to entities that had trouble accessing funding not a large well credit rated bank. It’s an absolute sham
Money from the CEFC is a loan, with interest, so isn’t a loss to the Australian public.
Are we really to believe that Macquarie could not obtain finance for this project elsewhere? I thought this was one of the core tenets of the CEFC. Why does Macquarie need the Australian taxpayer to subsidise it?