If you have shares in a publicly-listed company, you can ask questions at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) - and climate change is a fruitful topic for such questions.

COTA SA takes the threat of climate change seriously and our passionate Climate Change Group is focussed on the actions that can be taken at a policy, organisational and personal level to tackle climate change.

One of the questions often asked is “What can I do?”. Being more aware of the actions publicly-listed companies are taking to reduce emissions is one of many actions shareholders can take to invest ethically and also apply pressure to companies to take the threat of climate change seriously.

Numerous companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange have their headquarters in Adelaide. Most of them have climate change plans listed on their websites. De-carbonising companies is a vital part of Australia’s transition to Net Zero. Asking questions at an AGM can help companies understand the priority their shareholders place on achieving Net Zero and the pace of the transition.

One of our Climate Change Group members recently asked two questions of the Board of a publicly-listed company on its approach to climate change. Altogether, climate change was the topic of four out of the total of only 11 questions asked of the Board.

Often, questions can be submitted to the company prior to the AGM; the Notice of Meeting sent out to all shareholders will outline this process. Alternatively, you can ask questions on the day of the meeting.

Every shareholder can make a difference.

If you want to chat about this topic, contact the COTA Climate Change Group on 08 8232 0422.