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(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire climate crusader Mike Cannon-Brookes could target more major polluters with weak plans to curb emissions after forcing a strategy overhaul at Australian utility AGL Energy Ltd.
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Several companies that rank as key sources of greenhouse gas emissions lack detailed proposals to meet their pledges on climate action, while others tout net-zero goals that fall short of recognized standards, Cannon-Brookes said in an interview.
Repeating his tactic with AGL of becoming a leading investor and pushing for changes “is certainly one of the tools I would go for” with other polluters, the Atlassian Corp. co-founder said at his firm’s new R&D center in Bangalore. “If the opportunity makes sense, if the company is not going in the right direction and offers a large opportunity,” similar action could be taken, Cannon-Brookes said.
Firms including some of the top 10 polluters in his native Australia are failing to set out plans to deal with Scope 3 emissions -- those caused by a customer’s use of products or services, like a power plant burning a miner’s coal exports -- and others have goals that don’t align with the United Nations-based Science Based Targets initiative. “I could write most of their net zero plans on the back of an envelope,” Cannon-Brookes said.
Cannon-Brookes declined to identify any specific potential targets.
Read more: Corporate Net-Zero Goals Don’t Add Up to a Net-Zero Planet
Australia’s fourth-richest person has used his wealth, social media following and influence with global notables like Elon Musk to lobby for far stronger climate action from companies and governments. A 2017 online bet with Musk prompted Tesla Inc. to install the-then world’s biggest battery farm in South Australia, an action that helped catalyze the energy storage sector.
Cannon-Brookes has often insisted his campaigning is his nights-and-weekend job. “I’m not saying I’m going to go off and become a full-time corporate activist,” he said in the interview.
The entrepreneur has amassed a fortune estimated at north of $17 billion largely on the back of his 22% slice of Atlassian, a developer of collaboration software. Cannon-Brookes said he used a credit card to borrow $10,000 to launch the company in 2002, building a business with a current market value of about $58 billion in a country more traditionally known for birthing energy and mining juggernauts.