Shareholders say BHP-funded groups have promoted fossil fuels and obstructed climate policy in Australia
The mining giant BHP
is facing increasing pressure from investors to suspend its membership
of industry groups, including Australia’s Minerals Council and Business
Council, accused of lobbying efforts that are at odds with the goals of
the Paris climate agreement.
A shareholder resolution filed with BHP calling for the suspension is backed by Grok Ventures, the private investment company of software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife, Annie, and superannuation and pension funds from Australia, Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands.
In a major speech in July, BHP’s chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie, declared that global warming was indisputable, said drastic action was needed and committed the company to ramping up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the company has been criticised for continuing to fund groups including the Minerals Council and affiliated body Coal21, which is planning a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that aims to “invoke national pride” in coal.
The shareholder resolution was filed by activist group the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.A shareholder resolution filed with BHP calling for the suspension is backed by Grok Ventures, the private investment company of software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife, Annie, and superannuation and pension funds from Australia, Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands.
In a major speech in July, BHP’s chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie, declared that global warming was indisputable, said drastic action was needed and committed the company to ramping up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the company has been criticised for continuing to fund groups including the Minerals Council and affiliated body Coal21, which is planning a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that aims to “invoke national pride” in coal.
In a statement in support of the resolution, Cannon-Brookes said: “Until BHP stops funding for coal lobbyists, we’re extremely sceptical of their environmental or green credentials.”
The centre for corporate responsibility said BHP-funded groups had been undeniably successful in promoting fossil fuels and obstructing climate policy in Australia.
It lists nine groups including the Minerals Council, which it says called for new coal-fired plants and the development of a new coal basin, and the Business Council, which wanted “green schemes” to be scrapped, new investment in existing coal-fired plants and said a 45% emissions cut by 2030, as proposed by Labor following scientific advice, would be “economy wrecking” and likely to lead to deindustrialisation.
The centre’s executive director, Brynn O’Brien, said BHP was probably the most influential company in Australia and how it chose to spend shareholders’ money on policy advocacy had “real world impacts”.
“[We have] met with BHP on multiple occasions and we have given them a long list of examples of adverse climate lobbying by their industry associations,” O’Brien said. “The company does acknowledge that there is a serious issue but has been unable or unwilling to resolve it.”
BHP declined to comment ahead of its 5pm Thursday deadline to notify the Australian stock exchange of the resolution.
Co-filers of the resolution are Australia’s Vision Super, the Netherlands’ ACTIAM, Denmark’s MP Pension and the Church of England Pensions Board.
It is the latest step in an ongoing campaign targeting BHP over its industry group memberships. In November 2017, a centre for corporate responsibility resolution requesting that BHP review its direct and indirect involvement in climate policy advocacy won 9% support from shareholders. The miner subsequently reviewed its association memberships, left the World Coal Association and played a part in forcing a change of management at the minerals council.
In his July speech, Mackenzie said BHP would spend US$400m on developing technologies to reduce emissions from its own operations and the “scope 3” emissions from the companies that buy its resources, have net-zero emissions by 2050 and strengthen the link between emissions performance and executive pay from 2021.
The Guardian subsequently reported BHP was again reviewing its membership of the Minerals Council following disagreements over climate policy and has been accused of hypocrisy.
Some of the tension has been over Coal21, an organisation created to research low-emissions technology that is was revealed last month was planning a cross-media advertising campaign to enhance “the public standing and reputation of Australia’s coal industry”.
O’Brien said she expected the resolution would be heard at BHP’s annual general meetings in London on 17 October and Sydney on 7 November.
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