Mining firm BHP Billiton reiterated calls for a Clean Energy Target and emissions-reduction strategies on Tuesday. The move comes as shareholders consider a resolution that calls for BHP to pull out of industry groups whose climate and energy policy views are inconsistent with the company’s own.
The resolution was submitted by the Australasian Centre For Corporate Responsibility and backed by 0.0045 percent of BHP shares. BHP is urging shareholders to vote down the resolution, however.
“Industry associations do a lot of good,” BHP’s Australian minerals operations president Mike Henry stated at an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch yesterday. “They allow people in industry to come together and align around better standards of operating…and are a platform for people to discuss issues. We should never try to drive toward one player dominating that conversation and being the one who determines the view.”
While BHP will likely remain in the MCA, the company will publish a list of significant differences between its own views on climate and energy policy and those of the industry associations it belongs to by December, according to a statement posted to the firm’s website.
“We support a strong bias to action and we support the recommendations included in the Finkel Review,” Henry said.
Read the full article in The Australian.