BHP Group Ltd (BHP) is a diversified natural resources company and among the world’s top producers of major commodities.
Focusing heavily on minerals like iron ore and coal, BHP is a significant emitter, and since 2016, its fossil fuel business alone has produced 22 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
ACCR has engaged regularly with BHP Group since 2017, focusing on its decarbonisation commitments and climate and energy policy lobbying. In 2023, ACCR published an assessment of BHP’s FY2023 Industry Association Review, which found:
no substantial improvement in transparency or accountability for BHP’s climate lobbying activities
does not systematically align BHP with the Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying
In 2024, BHP, alongside Rio Tinto and BlueScope, announced Australia’s first electric smelting furnace (ESF) pilot project for ironmaking. If successful, it would hasten the decarbonisation of the local steel sector.
Details of BHP’s announced steel and iron decarbonisation projects, which feature in ACCR’s global coverage of the steel sector’s emission reduction efforts, can be found here.
New data suggests that Queensland’s Bowen Basin is Australia’s top methane-emitting hotspot. The region is home to major coal and gas fields - including BHP’s metallurgical coal mines.
While BHP’s disclosures have improved, its 2024 CTAP falls short on ambition and does not have a capital allocation strategy that matches the scale of the decarbonisation challenge. As a result, ACCR will be voting against this CTAP.
While BHP's 2024 CTAP provides improved disclosures on scope 3, it falls short on ambition and does not have a capital allocation strategy to match the scale of the challenge.
While BHP's 2024 CTAP provides improved disclosures on scope 3, it falls short on ambition and does not have a capital allocation strategy to match the scale of the challenge.
Major institutional investors representing nearly US$110 billion assets under management have withdrawn a shareholder resolution filed with BHP Group Limited (BHP), following improved disclosures in the company’s 2024 Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP).
ACCR commissioned a survey of investor sentiment - surveying 500 investors based in Australia, the United States, as well as countries across Asia and Europe, each with investments in steelmaking, iron ore and/or metallurgical coal mining.
ACCR is commenting on the results of the 2022 BHP Annual General Meeting, where our shareholder resolutions on positive advocacy and climate accounting received 12.73% and 18.67% support respectively.
ACCR has filed Shareholder Resolutions to BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) on climate policy advocacy and the inclusion of climate sensitivity analysis in financial statements.
BHP is Australia’s largest company (ASX: BHP) with huge political influence and a massive opportunity to align business interests and policy with a safe climate.
This vote suggests institutional investors are easily cowed by big companies like BHP and they’re unwilling to force them to adhere to the Paris Agreement.
ACCR welcomes BHP’s support for the shareholder resolution on climate-related lobbying. BHP must use its unique position of leadership to push for more ambitious emissions reductions before 2030.
The Woodside and BHP Scarborough project is at odds with the expectations of investors for companies to align their capital expenditure and decarbonisation strategies with the Paris Agreement.
“With this vote, investors have demonstrated to BHP that they remain focused on the impact of its industry associations on both Australian democracy and on climate action.”
“The measures the First Nations Alliance have secured with BHP could not have happened without the interest of the investment sector and the communication of their expectations about companies’ cultural heritage management.”
Read the background and reasoning behind upcoming shareholder resolutions to BHP Group on cultural heritage protection and on lobbying relating to COVID-19 Recovery, and ACCR's recommendation that shareholders vote against the re-election of BHP board member Malcolm Broomhead.
“The Federal government may have finally given up on thermal coal but the carbon lobby won’t be deterred, by pushing gas, another dirty fossil fuel - which is proven to have the same, if not worse emissions than coal once fugitive methane emissions are factored in.”
BHP, Origin Energy, Santos and Woodside are behind efforts to dirty up the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) by allowing it to invest in gas projects.
ACCR has filed Shareholder Resolutions to BHP Group Ltd (ASX:BHP) requesting the a moratorium on the damage, removal or destruction of cultural heritage sites until laws are strengthened, remove gag orders on traditional owners and cease lobbying efforts on COVID-19 recovery which are inconsistent with Paris targets.
