One of Australia's biggest miners is among a group of 11 power generators labelled carbon emissions "dinosaurs" by an environmental group.
Rio Tinto, which has majority ownership of a Gladstone generator, and aluminium giant Alcoa, are among the group that failed a WWF scorecard on carbon reduction performance.
The organisation found about half the 19 generators performed very badly, scoring less than two out of five stars.
Alcoa, Intergen and Rio Tinto were the worst performers.
WWF spokesman Paul Toni says the companies know they should be doing more to cut emissions.
"For two decades there has been no wringing of hands, no worrying about the future or the impact on our environment, just business as usual, without a second thought for anything but short-term profits," he said in a statement.
"It's remarkable how these dinosaur companies can complain about their future and ask for handouts but do zero to reduce their emissions."
Some companies had been making an effort to reduce carbon emissions, Mr Toni said.
"The appalling results of companies such as Rio Tinto and Intergen are in stark contrast to industry leaders like Origin Energy, TRUenergy, Babcock and Brown, Transfield Infrastructure Services and Verve."
Across the board many Australian power generators could do much better, he said.
