Despite criticism from climate protectionists, the German technology group Siemens maintains its participation in a large-scale coal mining project in Australia.
After an extraordinary board meeting yesterday evening, CEO Joe Kaeser wrote on Twitter that Siemens had examined all options but had to fulfill its contractual obligations. He also announced the establishment of a sustainability council to better consider environmental issues in the future.
In July 2019, Siemens accepted the order for the rail signal system for the Carmichael mine in the Australian state of Queensland planned by the Indian Adani group. According to Kaeser, the order has a volume of EUR 18 million. In mid-December, the Siemens boss announced that the delivery of signaling technology for the project would be put to the test.
Climate activist Neubauer does not want to be on the supervisory board
The climate protectors from “Fridays for Future” in particular had recently asked Siemens to withdraw completely from the Australian project. Kaeser met the spokeswoman for “Fridays for Future”, Luisa Neubauer, on Friday.
At the meeting, he surprisingly offered the climate activist a supervisory board post at the subsidiary Siemens Energy. Neubauer declined the offer. She also called sticking to the coal project an „inexcusable mistake“.
Protests planned for the supervisory board
Instead, the movement announced protests against Siemens. With the yes to the „most catastrophic coal mine project in the world“, Siemens boss Kaeser kicked off his company’s sustainable efforts „for a volume of only 20 million euros“, said Nick Heubeck of „Fridays for Future“ to the editorial network Germany. „With ‚Fridays for Future‘ we will therefore see Mr. Kaeser again at the Siemens shareholders‘ meeting in early February.“
