Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been warned not to be conned by Gautam Adani while he visits Ahmedabad, Mr Adani’s hometown in India, later today.
“Gautam Adani is the world’s largest private developer of coal projects,” said Geoff Law, coordinator of AdaniWatch, a project that maintains a watching brief on the global misdeeds of the Adani Group.
“Australia has already abetted an environmental crime by allowing Mr Adani to develop the notorious Carmichael mine in Queensland.”
“Mr Albanese should avoid any meetings with Mr Adani,” said Mr Law, who warned that even supporting Adani’s renewable-energy projects would assist the billionaire’s agenda for exploiting coal. In February, Norway’s biggest pension fund dumped its holdings in Adani’s green-energy arm amid concerns that such investments provided collateral for Adani’s coal projects.
On 24 January, the explosive Hindenburg report accused Mr Adani of ‘pulling the largest con in corporate history’. Since then, Adani companies have lost a staggering US $140 billion in value, and Mr Adani himself has tumbled from being the world’s third richest man to the 38th.
“Mr Albanese should not damage Australia’s brand any further by consorting with a tycoon whose colossal coal projects are displacing thousands of indigenous people in India and damaging the world’s climate,” Mr Law said.
Mr Law said that the closeness between India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and Gautam Adani had become a thing of notoriety, leading to accusations of ‘crony capitalism’.
“Mr Albanese should not allow himself to become tainted by accusations of crony capitalism by lending legitimacy to the destructive operations of the Adani Group,” Mr Law said.