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

A report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) detailing how nominee companies—middlemen that hold shares in name only—are used to obscure the identity of investors in Australian fossil fuel assets. The report highlights that these structures mask ownership for a significant portion of Australia's fossil fuel emissions and are primarily operated by major global banks.

• Nominee companies act as corporate middlemen that hold shares in name only to hide the identity of the actual owners, allowing fossil fuel investors to avoid public scrutiny.
• Approximately 18% of Australia's annual fossil fuel CO2 emissions, totaling 23 million tonnes, are linked to companies whose ownership is obscured by nominee structures.
• 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, an amount roughly equal to half of all Australian households' annual emissions.
• The majority of Australian nominee companies in the Global Energy Ownership Tracker dataset are branches of major global banks, including BNP Paribas, Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, and UBS. These entities are shareholders in at least 25 publicly listed energy firms and are tied to more than 50 fossil fuel projects.
• High percentages of shareholding in major Australian energy companies are held via nominee companies: nearly 70% of Origin Energy, over one-third of AGL Energy, and two-thirds of Whitehaven Coal.
• Nominee companies are linked to high-pollution and safety-risk assets, including the Loy Yang A power station (one of the world's top 50 toxic sulfur dioxide emitters), the Eraring power station (which saw a 130% increase in mercury pollution in 2024), and the Torrens Island gas plant (which failed work safety regulations).
• Australian superannuation funds, such as AustralianSuper, use nominee companies to invest in fossil fuel firms. For example, AustralianSuper's 5.07% stake in Whitehaven Coal Ltd is held through JPMorgan Nominees Australia Ltd, despite the fund's commitment to phase out carbon emissions by 2050.
• Australia lacks legislation regulating nominee companies. While the government proposed a public beneficial ownership register in 2022 and drafted a bill in late 2024, neither included regulations for nominee shareholders, and the 2024 bill lapsed as of August 2025.

APA

Global Energy Monitor (2025). The Fossil Fuel Middlemen: How Nominee Structures Obscure Australian Investments in Coal, Oil and Gas. https://globalenergymonitor.org/sites/default/files/migration/reports/GEM-Australia-Nominee-Companies-Report-Sept2025_3.pdf

Chicago

Global Energy Monitor. The Fossil Fuel Middlemen: How Nominee Structures Obscure Australian Investments in Coal, Oil and Gas. 2025. https://globalenergymonitor.org/sites/default/files/migration/reports/GEM-Australia-Nominee-Companies-Report-Sept2025_3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Energy Monitor |title=The Fossil Fuel Middlemen: How Nominee Structures Obscure Australian Investments in Coal, Oil and Gas |date=October 2025 |url=https://globalenergymonitor.org/sites/default/files/migration/reports/GEM-Australia-Nominee-Companies-Report-Sept2025_3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalenergymonitor2025fossil, author = {{Global Energy Monitor}}, title = {{The 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/sites/default/files/migration/reports/GEM-Australia-Nominee-Companies-Report-Sept2025_3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }