BHP recently announced a five-year, $400 million USD Climate Investment Program that will develop technologies for emission reduction in its own operations and those generated from the use of its resources.
“Over the next five years this program will scale up low carbon technologies critical to the decarbonization of our operations. It will drive investment in nature-based solutions and encourage further collective action on scope three emissions,” said CEO Andrew Mackenzie in a speech. “Commercial success of these investments will breed ambition and create more innovative partnerships to respond collectively to the climate challenge.”
Other notable initiatives include:
- Establishing a medium-term target for scope one and two emissions that is in line with the Paris Agreement. This is in addition to BHP’s short-term goal to cap 2022 emissions at 2017 levels.
- Developing a new climate portfolio analysis report in 2020. The new report will evaluate the potential impacts of a broader range of scenarios and the transition to a world below two degrees.
- Strengthening the link between emissions performance and executive remuneration.
Mackenzie concluded: “We require a considered and orderly transition to a lower carbon world, in which resource companies like BHP have both critical expertise and a key role to play.”
Photograph: Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters.