By Jo Nova
A story by Greg Roberts in The Australian a couple of months ago seems to have been missed. It exposed a motherlode of funds is flowing into Australia from foreigners to promote Net Zero.
Think of how enormous $343 million dollars is. Even spread over six years, it’s a huge amount of money to any Australia charity to buy teenage rent-a-crowds, social media campaigns, and tin-pot reports.
It’s so sweet that all these foreigners care so much about our environment, right? It’s just the mum’s and dad’s of Shanghai who want Australians to have nicer weather in 100 years…
Or maybe state entities and foreign industrialists want to protect their investments? How could we tell? The largest number of donations supposedly came from the US, but charities are under no obligation to name donors. And large US philanthropic funds can absorb and pass on donations from anywhere if they wanted to disguise the original source.
If, say, the Chinese wind industry (or the Danish one) were able to buy off Australian environmental activists, they win in two ways. Their pet activists demand the government mandate more wind turbines which increases the profits of Big Wind, while at the same time the Australian greenies turn a blind eye as the wind industry kills eagles, chops the forest and clubs the koalas. Whatever money the Chinese may have spent on Australian Net Zero lobbyists, the money surely flows right back to them through contracts for wind, solar and batteries.
We have no specific chain of evidence that this has happened, but if it was happening, no one would know. The wind industry have the means, motive and the opportunity, so to speak. They’d be crazy if they weren’t doing it.
And so we arrive at the charity in Sydney called “The Sunrise Project” which brings in millions from anonymous foreigners. They, in turn, fork out money to groups like the Friends of The Earth so they can call climate skeptics “shills for Big Oil”. Even the CFMEU (Construction Forestry and Maritime Employees Union) scored some cash. Whoever is funding the Sunrise Project apparently doesn’t want the world to know about their generosity. Mark Hepburn is the head of the Sunrise Project and was caught telling one donor via email that they were taking steps to avoid disclosure — saying ” I do have concerns about the potential PR impact of disclosure of both our funding and grantees.””
The Sunrise Project funnels millions from overseas to push net zero
By Greg Roberts, The Australian
Investigations by The Australian indicate that conservation group Friends of the Earth, one of the 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 $26m 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 net-zero emissions push.
The Sunrise Project received almost $343.5m in grants and donations between 2018 and 2024, 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 $279m 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 a “strategy session” that included discussion about hiding the identity of funding sources.
The funding flowing to the Sunrise project has ramped up massively in the last ten years. While they got less than $5m in 2016 (which still buys a lot of angry teenagers), by 2021 they were raking in $50 million plus. And by 2024 they were pulling in $75 million.
The Green-activists are in bed with industrial renewables corporation
There are some pretty odd exchanges revealing the tight alliances of green groups and industrial wind corporations.
The Australian vice president of the giant renewables corporation called Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners was sending emails to Ark Energy, another renewables giant at the same time as they were sending messages to Friends of the Earth. The big renewables groups were in, or wanted to be in on the Chalumbin wind farm.
For some reason the head of the Copenhagen renewables group were praising the top guy at the Friends of the Earth (Foe) because “ “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.”
That was when the top guy at Friends of the Earth wrote to another environmental charity which was critical of the Chalumbin project and “wanted them to talk to people at Ark Energy and CIP to find a way to get the Chalumbin wind farm approved.” That head was Steve Nowakowski, a passionate photographer who’d been working to stop wind farms, and he was astonished, saying:
“I have been involved with conservation groups all of my life and I have never witnessed a conservation group working with multibillion-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.”
The Greenie types are selling out quickly for the money. Cheap Cheap…
Drew Hutton, a former founder of The Greens says: “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.”
It’s a long article in The Australian from April 2, 2026. Read it all.
Image: AI generated. “Greens are best friends with the Bankers”
Because of the general dumbing-down of much of the Australian population (present company excepted) and politicians in particular, Australia is very susceptible to all manner of lies and propaganda and is quite happy to destroy the economy to demonstrate their commitment to one of the biggest lies ever told.
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I know some Greens (relatives and friends) with whom I steadfastly avoid discussing such issues. It may be an aggregious fault on my part, but I wish to keep them in my life. What is clear is that they have completely sold themselves to the Movement. From their rants and pile-ons it is clear that there is no room at all in their minds for the idea that they are anything but 100% correct. I let them rant and I say nothing.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: things need to get really, really bad, as the only teacher they understand is pain. Hopefully when that happens we’ll still have some trees, air and Koalas left.
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Unusual partners ‘in bed’ with each other?
I am restraining myself from making sexual innuendo jokes out of respect for the high minded and intellectual discourse typical of this blog.
I will not speculate on who is getting f_____ and who isn’t.
Although I am certain it is not any of the inhabitants of the bed.
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It’s difficult to tell who is friend or FOE. And the Left doesn’t see them as strange bedfellows…
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Paywalled of course, but probably too long anyway.
Thanks for the summary Jo, I get the idea.
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Think of how enormous $343 million dollars is.
Perhaps think of it as a redistribution of wealth. An analogy could be a bathtub with water running into the tub via a faucet, and some running out via a drain. Rent-a-crowd participants and such boost the local economy — that’s good –, while expenditures pay for workers and materials — also good. Profits, like a morning haze, go somewhere. I’ll pour a glass of wine and mull on that.
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Off topic I know “France’s Macron Praises Trump’s Iran Deal in G7 Bilateral: ‘It Will Fix the Nuclear Issue’”
On topic: Of course Australia spending billions per year on windmills and solar panels and transmission lines and this requires advertising. The only question is whether it is support of Green groups who put pressure on politicians or simply illegal bribery as in cash contributions to political campaigns. It certainly dwarfs One Nation’s income. In fact direct bribery may be one of our few rapidly growing businesses, like the public service itself. Soon we will all be working for the government and driving windmills.
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The French have gone all in with nuclear power, it provides about 70% of their energy and it enables them to be the biggest exporter of electricity in the world. Coal deprived countries such as England can receive power across the channel.
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/france
Obviously, Australia doesn’t have any neighbours with surplus power to siphon. Nuclear for Australia is launching an ad campaign to prompt people to get a rational understanding of our energy needs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVjLs_xG1AI
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I’ve been following the ins and outs of the whole Anthropogenic Global Warming/ Man made Climate change (AGW/MMCC) debate since 1983.
Without boring everyone, there have been many events in that timeline of the debate when I’ve thought to myself ,“Well, that’s it then, the whole AGW/MMCC is now disproven, we can get on with our lives again”. But nope, just like some zombie terminator the whole thing gets revitalised and away it goes again.
One of those moments was the publication of the Nowakowski photos of that North Queensland wind installation. Every greenie in the country should have had a heart attack when they saw those photos. Qld elected the LNP into government, so I would assume that project has now been stopped. Except I’ll bet it hasn’t. There’s now too many people making money from this whole scare campaign and obviously there’s big money out there to be utilised. In fact, $343m. Now we have AI centres and the “people” are realising you cant have expensive electricity and AI centres at the same time, so it would seem the climate change scare might again be finished. Except it wont. Well, maybe Pauline and Malcolm can save us, but I wont hold my breath.
Now, when I read or hear any commentary about AGW/MMCC, I just use the rule, follow the money and forget about the science. Works every time.
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Ross,
My first exposure to Global Warming was in 1992. As a middle aged scientist then, I found it to be laughable from day one. It was poor science used to put money in pockets. Then it became Climate Change and a vehicle for sad people called Greens to help rich people rape the environment, for a fee.
If I was wrong, dear readers, please tell me.
Geoff S
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When I retired I decided to examine Global Warming. I read through many papers, including the Scientific assessment of the then 2 IPCC reports (3 & 4) and found them unconvincing, to say the least.
And here we are, 23 years later, they haven’t come up with any proof, just possibilities.
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I am waiting for the Greens Party, Teals masquerading as independents, and even other climate-environmental groups like saving Koala to protest against the environmental damage underway clearing forests and other areas for access roads, transmission line corridors and installations of wind turbines and other so called renewables transition.
I was driving recently in Port Macquarie NSW and there are many illuminated flashing speed warning signs about Koala in the area, in the suburbs of that provincial city, but over on the Great Dividing Range and elsewhere that are Koala habitat, silence!
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Perhaps PHON can further help to expose these vile liars and con artists and help to change the voting patterns by 2028?
The facts prove that the last 0.1% of Human existence has seen the greatest Human flourishing in the last 300,000 years, because of the Industrial Revolution and the use of FOSSIL FUELS.
And GDP per capita for Humans has also soared since 1800 and yet population and life expectancy has soared as well.
All the data for this is easily found at OWI Data, so what’s the problem? And why do they continue to lie to the kids and destroy our environments and wildlife, just to make more money for the liars and grifters?
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Again, here’s Dr Rosling’s 5 minute “Joy of stats” video shown on the BBC about 16 years ago and proving that fossil fuels and the Industrial Revolution was the driver for global HEALTH and WEALTH since 1800.
So why are we too stupid to understand these facts when it only takes 5 minutes of our time?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahp7QhbB8G4
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“And why do they continue to lie to the kids and destroy our environments and wildlife, just to make more money for the liars and grifters?”.
You answered your own question. But it isn’t the only answer: my pereception is that they want control over other people, hate personal freedom (for others), hate anything that works (if it can work for others). All they want to do is to drag everything down to the point that by some unexplained miracle everyone else is miserable but they are happy happy happy. It can’t ever happen of course because they are genetically incapable of even one happy, let alone three.
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A green agenda tipping the scales? Say it ain’t so!
And now we’re going to get smashed by… wait for it… Godzilla El Nino!
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/what-does-the-godzilla-el-nino-mean-for-australia/news-story/92504c7278eba3e45744fd9a68c23a9a
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Don’t worry it’s only the worst year since 1910, you know, when records began . Ignore the 1890’s where records were kept and recorded judiciously . Ignore the heat, lack of rain, deaths, etc. these records aren’t records because —–.
If Im still around next summer Ill let you know how this “prediction” pans out.
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‘Forecast models still vary on exactly how strong it will become and weather agencies caution against focusing on a single outcome months in advance.’
They got that right, the rest can be pulped.
According to my sources, south east Australia should remain moderately wet because of a weak El Nino and then flipping to La Nina in Autumn.
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Actually, the coming El Nino is irrelevant. The smashing has been done by the forecast. That’s the whole point. By the time the actual El Nino arrives, they will be onto a new forecast. If you keep track, and point out when the El Nino does arrive it doesn’t match the forecasts, no-one will be listening. It’s a game, and only one side can make the rules, be referee, and play.
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Again, here’s global GDP per capita since the start of the Industrial Revolution and the use of FFs.
That recent soaring Human flourishing is amazing and represents just 0.1% of our time on Earth.
So why can’t the liars and con artists just look up the data and teach the facts to our schoolkids?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-average-gdp-per-capita-over-the-long-run
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For those wanting to read The Australian article, copy & paste this: https://archive.is/20260331123702/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/the-sunrise-project-funnels-millions-from-overseas-to-push-net-zero/news-story/d816bf876668e2d2982d3fe72ea29c3e
You can get behind paywalls with this: https://www.removepaywall.com/
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And who supplies almost ALL of the “generating’ and “distribution” hardware for this caper?
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The EU is forcing Chinese manufacturers to adopt green technology standards.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3357167/eu-carbon-tariff-sows-havoc-china-steel-firms-grapple-absurd-rules?module=flexi_unit-focus&pgtype=homepage
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EU Government recently required Albanese Labor Australia government to sign terms and conditions in return for a Trade Agreement, note that for several years of negotiation by the previous Coalition governments they refused to accept the EU terms and conditions that Albanese Labor has signed up to, including achieving net zero emissions and EU having a say over use of land in Australia.
See UN IPCC and other UN based agendas, Agenda 21 – Sustainability and land use etc.
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I face the same thing with EU ‘CE’ accreditation. It’s outrageous. Extortion. The gnomes of Brussels recently fined Elon Musk EU120Million for not revealing all the details they wanted on his algorithms on ‘X”. They have no right to know any of that. Who would trust politicians and bureaucrats with such information? No care and no responsibility.
So the very same day Musk moved all his servers off EU soil. He had clearly planned it for six months. Now they have nowhere to go legally. And he has no fine to pay.
The EU is evil. The socialist mandarins have weaponized even simple safety rules and due diligence rules to pry into every business and extract proprietary information to which they have no legal right.
Carbon is just a silly story, but a key to profits and absolute power. Like the Wuhan virus. A chance to play with absolute power. To save the planet, of course.
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The Sunrise Project is an example of an inverted ice berg. While it is huge and, as shown by the article/investigation, easy to see the size of it in actuality its the small ones underneath that also bear thought. Consider WELLCOME:
The Wellcome Trust a global charitable foundation supporting science to solve urgent health challenges. Established in 1936 from the estate of pharmaceutical magnate Sir Henry Wellcome, headquartered in London is one of the wealthiest charitable foundations in the world (endowment of approximately £37.6 billion as of 2025).
Primary goal is to improve human and animal health by funding biomedical research, policy advocacy, and public engagement and is a major non-governmental funder of scientific research globally. The Trust currently prioritizes three major global challenges: climate change and health, infectious diseases, and mental health.
In Australia Wellcome provided $2.35 million grant for the Ethos Project at Griffith University to address heat stress in older Australians. In 2020 Orygen and the Centre for Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne received a landmark $11.9 million grant package to lead global efforts in early psychosis research.
First Nations Heat Health: In 2024, a consortium including the Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather received $4.2 million. Led by Associate Professor Supriya Mathew and Associate Professor Melissa Hart, this project investigates the heat health burden on First Nations communities in remote Australia – [65,000years late but what the hell lol].
University of Melbourne’s Nossal Institute for Global Health were awarded $4.9 million (2024) to study the impact of climate change on livestock keepers in Kyrgyzstan, demonstrating the trust’s support for Australian-led international health security research.
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“to study the impact of climate change on livestock keepers in Kyrgyzstan” Absolute nonsense.
“heat health burden on First Nations communities in remote Australia – [65,000years late but what the hell lol].”
What about the migration of gay kangaroos?
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Jo mentioned how the Greens imperil koalas in Australia but, although that is bad, they could use the excuse that the koalas are collateral damage. Here is an example of the damage Greens are planning to inflict on ponies on Dartmoor in southwest England but in this case the harm is deliberate. They want to slaughter large numbers of Dartmoor ponies in order to “improve biodiversity” even though Dartmoor ponies have been grazing there for centuries, perhaps much longer, and the number in the breed is already much lower than it was a few decades ago.
BADENOCH: “MASS SLAUGHTER” OF DARTMOOR PONIES BY QUANGO IS “MADNESS”
https://order-order.com/2026/06/16/badenoch-mass-slaughter-of-dartmoor-ponies-by-quango-is-madness/
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