The following is the transcript of my Page One story in today's edition of The Australian newspaper. Habitat pics by Steven Nowakowski of wet sclerophyll forest that would have been lost if the Chalumbin wind farm had proceeded in north Queensland.
Secretive Sydney-based
charity The Sunrise Project has raked in hundreds of millions of
dollars in donations from cashed up overseas financiers to spearhead
the push for net zero emissions, allowing it to fill the coffers of
Australian conservation groups turning a blind eye to mounting
concerns about the environmental impacts of renewable energy
projects.
Investigations by The
Australian indicate conservation group Friends of the Earth, one
of The Sunrise Project's donation beneficiaries, teamed up with
wealthy overseas companies to back their plans to carve up pristine
forest in north Queensland for a wind farm.
Friends of the Earth
Australia has received more than $26 million in donations and “grant
income” in recent years, giving it the resources to boost an
increasingly fractious campaign to keep the broader environment
movement onside in support of the zero net emissions push.
The Sunrise Project
received almost $343.5 million between 2018 and 2024 in grants and
donations, according to annual financial statements filed with the
Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Over the same
period, the charity forked out more than $279 million in grants to
groups and projects in Australia and overseas.
Sunrise has raised
eyebrows by making $365,000 in payments to the controversial
Construction, Forestry and Maritime
Employees Union. The charity is also under scrutiny by the Senate
over an extraordinary admission that it held “strategy sessions”
to hide the identity of funding sources.
The
Sunrise Project has emerged as by far the most cashed up
environmental lobby group in Australian history. FoE and Sunrise are
registered charities, allowing tax deductibility for donations.
The
Weekend Australian revealed recently growing divisions within the
environment movement over the renewables push, with ecologists
increasingly questioning the biodiversity and wildlife conservation
costs of many projects, especially wind farms. Major conservation
groups including Friends of the Earth, the Australian Conservation
Foundation and the Environmental Defenders Fund – along with the
Greens - have been silent in the face of mounting concerns.
FoE
financial reports show “grant income” increased from $402,785 in
2016 to $3,088,999 million in 2021, the peak year for receipts, with
$1,985,968 received last year. A total of $14,965,551 was received in
grant income between 2018 and 2025. As well, FoE listed a total of
$11,640,085 in donations received between 2018 and 2025. The combined
income from grants and donations over the same period was
$26,505,636.
The
amount of bank interest received by FoE jumped from $44,719 in 2023
to $104,378 last year, suggesting the group has amassed a substantial
war chest. FoE Australia lists The Sunrise Project as a donor in
annual reports. FoE Melbourne lists Sunrise as a financial supporter
in its reports along with the Star of the South wind farm off the
Gippsland coast in 2024 and 2025 reports.
The
Australian reported last week that Star of the South and the Northern
Silica Project, planned by Diatreme Resources to mine silica sand at
Cape Flattery in north Queensland, had been awarded Major Project
Status by the Albanese Government to fast-track environmental and
financial approvals. The superannuation giant Cbus has a 10 per cent
stake in Star of the South. Cbus and Diatreme Resources are chaired
by national Labor president Wayne Swan, who denies having lobbied the
government in support of either project.
The Sunrise Project 's
financial statements show the charity received $4.7 million in
donations and bequests in 2016, accounting for all but a small
fraction of income. That sum had jumped to $53.2
million in 2021 and $75.3 million in 2024 in grants and donations.
Funds for projects in Australia in 2024 amounted to $22,027,314, with
$41,520,974 spent on overseas projects.
The Sunrise Project
describes itself as a global network of independent organisations
that share a common mission and common values. “We’re passionate
about building networks who can drive the transition from fossil
fuels to clean energy to reduce greenhouse pollution and create a
healthy and prosperous future for everyone,” its website says. The
charity was established in 2012 by John Hepburn, its current
executive director, who previously led campaigns for Greenpeace
Australia and co-founded FoE Brisbane.
Australian Electoral
Commission records show the Construction, Forestry and Maritime
Employees union received $165,000 in funding from Sunrise in the
2024-25 financial year; $50,000 in 2023-24; and $150,000 in 2022-23 -
a total of $365,000 across three years.
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| John Helpburn - Facebook |
All branches of the
construction division of the CFMEU were placed into administration
by the federal government in August 2024 following allegations the
union has engaged in bullying, corruption and criminal infiltration.
A Sunrise
spokesperson said the funds were paid to the union's maritime
division to support its “policy advocacy to ensure
responsible decommissioning of offshore oil and gas rigs at the end
of their life so taxpayers aren’t left to clean up the mess”. The
charity said the $165,000 payment in 2024-25 was made before the
August 2024 administration development.
Cbus has been in the
media spotlight recently with revelations that the superannuation
fund's property developer, Earle Setches, was filmed in January
dining on a yacht in Melbourne with underworld figure Mick Gatto. A
CFMEU-appointed Cbus director, Lucy Weber, resigned last month
following reports she was in a secret relationship with the union's
former national secretary, Zach Smith.
Donations to
Sunrise averaged $177,000 in 2023 but individual American and
European donors forked out much more, with the United States
identified as the largest source country for funds. Prominent among
benefactors in 2023 was the California-based Sequoia Climate
Foundation chaired by American hedge fund billionaire C. Frederick
Taylor. Other well-heeled American donors included Bloomberg
Philanthropies and the Zega Family Foundation, both based in New
York, and the Washington-based Wallace Global Fund. Australian donors
include Boundless Earth, founded by Sydney software billionaire
Mike Cannon-Brookes.
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| Mike Cannon-Brookes |
Sunrise's combined
revenue jumped from $86.4 million in 2022 to $121.9 million in 2023.
While much of its work is focused in Australia, the charity supported
pro-renewable projects in 31 other countries in 2023. Grants given to
charities often have conditions governing how money is spent. FoE and
Sunrise are not required to reveal the identity of donors or the
quantities of individual donations and conditions attached to them.
During a hearing
in February 2025 of the Senate Finance and Public Administration
Legislation Committee, Liberal senator Jane Hume read an email sent
by Mr Hepburn to an unidentified foreign donor. Mr Hepburn wrote:
“We have a strategy session with our lawyers and board to plan
out our response. As part of this we are seeking advice on steps we
might take to avoid disclosure, challenge and limit disclosure, or to
ensure that any disclosure is limited to the committee members and is
not made public. I do have concerns about the potential PR impact of
disclosure of both our funding and grantees.”
Senator Hume told the committee she found it
concerning that Mr Hepburn was potentially facilitating foreign
donations and intentionally designing a scheme to avoid transparency
in Australia.
A Sunrise spokesperson defended the right of
donors to privacy: “Some funders are happy to be disclosed. Others
request privacy and Sunrise respects this right to the extent
possible alongside our compliance and reporting obligations -
particularly in a context where the energy transition is so deeply
politicised and fossil fuel interests are known to intimidate
opponents.”
Under Australia's Foreign Influence Transparency
Scheme, entities are required to register certain activities if they
are taken on behalf of a foreign principal; a foreign principal
includes a “foreign political organisation”. Registrable
activities include political lobbying and communications activities.
Whether a foreign donor to an Australian charity engaged in political
debate could potentially be regarded as a “political organisation”
has not been tested.
A spokesperson for Sunrise said its foreign donors
are not political organisations. An Attorney-General's Department
spokesperson said exemptions from the scheme may apply to certain
charity activities, but the department does not comment on its
application to particular entities.
FoE's “grant income” spike of more than $3
million in 2021 coincides with a flurry of activity by the group on
the renewables front, with leaked emails providing a rare insight
into lobbying by some of the industry's biggest players. An email was
sent in November that year by Matthew Stuchbery, then Australian
vice-president of Danish renewables giant Copenhagen Infrastructure
Partners Australia,
to Ark Energy communications head Melissa Pisani and FoE national
campaign director Cam Walker.
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| Cam Walker - Facebook |
CIP is a key player in
Australian renewable energy projects and the financier of the Star of
the South wind farm. The company at the time was considering
investing in a controversial wind farm, Chalumbin, planned by
renewables heavyweight Ark Energy near Ravenshoe on Queensland's
Atherton Tableland. Ark Energy is a subsidiary of Seoul-based Korea
Zinc.
Referring to Mr
Walker, Mr Stutchbery wrote: “We’ve worked closely with FoE in
the context of Star of the South, and Cam has been very helpful in
relaying information from their people in North Queensland.” Mr
Stutchbery, until recently the chair of Queensland Renewable Energy
Council, is now an advisor to CIP and Star of the South.
At the time as the CIP dispatch, Mr Walker wrote
to Rainforests Reserves Australia vice-president Steven Nowakowski, a
leading critic of Chalumbin. Mr Walker wrote: “Copenhagen
Infrastructure Partners want to buy into the Chalumbin project but
want to make sure it's going to be acceptable.”
The Chalumbin project, planned over a large area
of wet sclerophyll forest adjoining the Wet Tropics World Heritage
Area, was withdrawn by Ark Energy in 2024 following years of fierce
community opposition. Mr Nowakowski said he was astonished by Mr
Walker's approach. “Cam wanted me to talk to senior Ark Energy and
CIP people to find a way to get the Chalumbin wind farm approved,”
he said.
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| Matthew Stutchbery |
“I have been involved with conservation groups
all of my life and I have never witnessed a conservation group
working with multi-billion-dollar companies trying to get a
development over the line. This was the most obscene development,
hard up against a world heritage area with gorgeous forests, and FoE
didn’t seem concerned about the forests, just focusing on its
relationships with Ark Energy and CIP.”
Asked if the emails indicated a close working
relationship between FoE and CIP, a CIP spokesperson said: “Friends
of the Earth is one of many interested stakeholders our projects
engage with as part of regular outreach activities.”
Ark Energy
declined to comment. Mr Walker insisted the email exchange was not intended to benefit Chalumbin: "Our engagement was focused on raising concerns about environmental risks and, where possible, discouraging investment in a proposal we considered inappropriate. Any suggestion we were working to facilitate or support the project is false."
CIP got some bad news
recently when authorities announced that Spain's biggest wind farm
development, the Maestrazgo cluster of 120 wind farms, had been
suspended pending the outcome of a corruption probe by the country's
Civil Guard into environmental approvals obtained by Forestalia, the
company that was initially developing the project. Maestrazgo was
acquired by CIP in 2024. There is no suggestion CIP was involved in
or was aware of wrong-doing.
Mr Walker was a witness at a hearing of the Senate
Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and
Energy last November. Mr Walker was asked by current Nationals leader
Matt Cnavan about the nature of $1.6 million in grant income received
by FoE in 2023.
Mr Walker responded: “It wouldn't be government
granting; it would be philanthropic foundations.” Asked if money
came from renewable energy companies, either directly or through
other organisations, Mr Walker responded: “To
the best of my knowledge, no.”
Financial support from
Star of the South and The Sunrise Project are referenced in recent
FoE reports. Misleading a committee hearing can be potentially
regarded as contempt of the Senate. A FoE spokesperson said Mr Walker’s response was not misleading.
Star of the South said the only
money directed by the wind farm to FoE was $6,000 for the 2023
Transform Expo that show-cased renewable projects in Gippsland. Friends of the Earth said the money was not a donation but a fee for an
“event cost”.
In response to The
Weekend Australian's recent coverage of splits in the environment
movement over renewables, Mr Walker said on Facebook: “The
Australian exists to hurt green politics and it's always very unwise
to rely it to push an issue.”
The Senate committee has been examining the use by
Rainforest Reserves Australia of AI in editing submissions to
government authorities about renewable energy projects, resulting in
errors such as references to non-existent government bodies. Labor
and Greens senators have joined with FoE in repeatedly attacking RRA
over the editing. FoE says the committee is probing the “spread of
disinformation”.
A fossil fuel industry submission to the committee
makes a comparable mistake. Coal-mining industry advocate and former
Bowen Coal chair Nick Jorss claimed in the submission that the
Whitsunday Conservation Council was one of several groups funded by
The Sunrise Project that was a “network of aligned entities”
sustained by “foreign-linked funding streams”.
WCC secretary Faye Chapman said the claim is
untrue. “Whitsunday Conservation Council has never received funding
from The Sunrise Project,” Ms Chapman said. Mr Jorss conceded the
claim “could be a mistake”. Mr Jorss said he stood by his
submission's assertion that a “Sunrise blueprint has successfully
captured Australia’s conservation movement”, while Sunrise and
its donor recipients “turn a blind eye to tens of thousands of
hectares of native habitat destroyed by large wind and solar
projects”.
Groups to garner funding from Sunrise other than
FoE include the Queensland Conservation Council, which received
$89,118 in 2022-23; QCC describes Sunrise as a “major donor”.
Climate Action Network Australia says Sunrise is a “generous
donor”. The Capricorn Conservation Council acknowledges Sunrise
donations of $11,111 in 2022 and $63,888 in 2023.
Sunrise defends its financial support for
environmental groups. “The Sunrise Project's mission is to scale
social movements to drive the transition from fossil fuels to
renewable energy as swiftly as possible,” a spokesperson said. “
We do this by supporting and collaborating with a wide range of
community organisations to protect Australia's environment. The
crisis in Iran shows that Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels
isn’t just a climate issue, it’s a national security issue and a
sovereign energy issue. Funding comes from philanthropic supporters,
including Australian and international philanthropists, trusts and
foundations that share a commitment to environmental protection and
climate action.”
The monetary fortunes
of Friends of the Earth and the Sunrise Project stand in stark
contrast to the finances of Mr Nowakowski's Cairns-based Rainforests
Reserves Australia, the leading conservation group opposing many
renewables. A “dirt file” circulated to the media by the offices
of federal environment minister Murray Watt and energy minister Chris
Bowen makes much of the fact that in recent years, Mr Nowakowski has
become a supporter of nuclear power as part of the energy mix.
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| Steven Nowakowski |
“Mr Nowakowski’s conversion to nuclear power
coincides with a dramatic change in the finances of the organisation
he claims to represent,” the file says. The most recent returns for
RRA show the group received $72,275 in donations from regional
communities in 2023 and $101,934 in 2024. Mr Nowakowski said he has
received a single payment related to nuclear power - funding from the
Massachusetts Clean Air Task Force to allow him to attend a seminar
on nuclear energy last year in Warsaw.
Respected long-time
environmental activist and co-founder of the Australian Greens, Drew
Hutton, said of groups receiving financial support from some donors:
“You
can’t keep an energy or mining company honest if you are accepting
money from them. They are holding you hostage. The capture of an
environmental NGO usually involves that organisation turning a blind
eye to environmentally harmful activities they should be opposing.”
 |
| Drew Hutton |
More stories :
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