Macquarie’s $58m man backs thorny net zero play

afr.com:

Macquarie Group’s highest-paid banker, Nick O’Kane, has urged the market to stay “open-minded” on decarbonisation technology and says investment in controversial carbon capture and storage systems is critical in the global race to hit net zero emissions targets.

This is despite critics of CCS, including Fortescue Metals chairman Andrew Forrest, who have long argued it is too expensive and ineffective at reducing emissions. Instead of encouraging companies to limit their carbon output, they say carbon capture legitimises the continued use of fossil fuels.

Nick O’Kane has been the highest-paid senior executive at Macquarie for several years in a row. Annie Mulligan

But Mr O’Kane, who leads Macquarie’s sprawling commodities and global markets team and earned $57.6 million in the 2023 financial year, said it would be critical for the world to reach net zero emissions in time for 2050.

“With technology and the external environment continuing to evolve, it is essential we all remain flexibility and open-minded in our application of decarbonisation solutions,” Mr O’Kane said.

“To reach global net zero targets, global investment [in emissions reduction] will need to significantly step up,” he told the Carbon Markets Institute’s Australasian Emissions Reduction Summit on Friday.

Macquarie holds a significant interest in British CCS player Storegga, which Mr O’Kane said was a pioneer in the industry and would ultimately help the bank’s more carbon-intensive clients limit their emissions.

“We’ve supported Storegga in its growth from a single carbon capture project into an international developer of multiple decarbonisation technology,” he said.

The banker also argued that the government, regulators and industry bodies had to work