Fossil Fuel Middlemen: How Nominee Structures Obscure Australian Investments in Coal, Oil, and Gas

The report finds that nominee companies, primarily branches of major global banks, mask the ownership of fossil fuel assets in Australia, obscuring approximately 18% of the national fossil fuel CO2 emissions. It highlights that these structures allow investors, including superannuation funds, to maintain stakes in high-emitting projects while avoiding public scrutiny, and notes that Australian law currently lacks regulations to require the disclosure of the actual shareholders behind these nominees.

• Nominee companies in Australia mask the identity of actual owners, with those in the Global Energy Ownership Tracker dataset accounting for approximately 18% of the national total of fossil fuel CO2 emissions, or 23 million tonnes annually.
• The majority of Australian nominee companies identified are branches of major global banks, specifically Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, and UBS. These entities appear as shareholders in at least 25 publicly listed energy firms and are linked to more than 50 fossil fuel projects.
• Three specific nominee companies—JPMorgan Nominees Australia Pty Ltd, Citicorp Nominees Pty Ltd, and HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Ltd—obscure over 22 million tonnes of annual CO2 emissions and are connected to high-pollution sites including the Loy Yang A and Eraring power stations.
• Nominee structures are prevalent in major Australian energy firms: over two-thirds of Origin Energy's shares, over one-third of AGL Energy's shares, and two-thirds of Whitehaven Coal's shares are held through nominee companies.
• Australian superannuation funds use nominee companies to invest in fossil fuels; for example, AustralianSuper used JPMorgan Nominees Australia Ltd to hold a 5.07% stake in Whitehaven Coal Ltd, despite previous commitments to divest.
• Australian law does not require nominee shareholders in public companies to disclose their status or the identity of the actual shareholder, and a 2024 draft bill for a beneficial ownership register failed to include regulations for nominee shareholders.

APA

Louis, G. (2025). Fossil Fuel Middlemen: How Nominee Structures Obscure Australian Investments in Coal, Oil, and Gas. Global Energy Monitor. https://globalenergymonitor.org/research/fossil-fuel-middlemen-how-nominee-structures-obscure-australian-investments-coal-oil-and-0

Chicago

Louis, Gabe. Fossil Fuel Middlemen: How Nominee Structures Obscure Australian Investments in Coal, Oil, and Gas. Global Energy Monitor, 2025. https://globalenergymonitor.org/research/fossil-fuel-middlemen-how-nominee-structures-obscure-australian-investments-coal-oil-and-0.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Louis |first1=Gabe |title=Fossil Fuel Middlemen: How Nominee Structures Obscure Australian Investments in Coal, Oil, and Gas |publisher=Global Energy Monitor |date=29 October 2025 |url=https://globalenergymonitor.org/research/fossil-fuel-middlemen-how-nominee-structures-obscure-australian-investments-coal-oil-and-0 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{louis2025fossil, author = {Louis, Gabe}, title = {{Fossil Fuel Middlemen: How Nominee Structures Obscure Australian Investments in Coal, Oil, and Gas}}, institution = {Global Energy Monitor}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://globalenergymonitor.org/research/fossil-fuel-middlemen-how-nominee-structures-obscure-australian-investments-coal-oil-and-0}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }