BHP defies calls to quit climate change lobbying groups

Mining giant to renew pressure on groups to bring policies in line with BHP's own.

BHP will maintain its membership of the NSW Minerals Council. Picture: AFP

BHP won’t quit industry associations seen as lobbying against action on climate change despite intensifying pressure from environmentally-minded investor groups and climate activists, the mining giant says, but says it will renew pressure on a range of groups to bring their policies in line with BHP's own.

BHP released its review into its industry association memberships on Thursday, saying it won't quit any of the 30 organisations included in the review despite finding it had "material differences" in outlook on climate change with at least four of them.

The mining giant said it believed it still gained significant benefits from membership of the four – the American Petroleum Institute, the Mining Association of Canada, the New South Wales Mineral Council and the US Chamber of Commerce – despite substantial disagreement on issues surrounding climate science, carbon emission reduction targets and global agreements to mitigate climate change.

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The latest review is BHP’s second, following significant pressure on the company to quit organisations such as the Minerals Council of Australia and Coal21 – a group originally set up to back research into carbon capture technology but which has bankrolled pro-coal advertising campaigns – which activist groups blame for lobbying against the introduction of policies that would mitigate carbon emissions.

BHP’s latest review found that neither group held positions that materially differed from BHP’s own, although the review said BHP believed “that some of Coal21’s broader communications activities have not been consistent with its core objective”.

But the company said it had elected to maintain its membership of Coal21 after the organisation’s board had changed its constitution to confirm its focus on researching low-emissions technology and carbon capture research and to ensure “ensure that any communications relate only to technical matters in service of its technical program of work”.

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“The constitutional amendment is consistent with Coal21’s underlying objectives to undertake a technical program of work into low-emissions technology, and confirms that broader advocacy and communications activities are not within the scope of the company and will not form any part of the company’s forward program of work,” the BHP review said.

Similarly, BHP said it would maintain its membership of the NSW Minerals Council because it “receives a moderate level of benefit from the broader activities of the NSWMC”, including work on health and safety issues, community engagement and workforce development and diversity, despite significant differences on energy policy and climate change.

BHP said the NSWMC has no position on a carbon price, and focused its energy policy advocacy too heavily on reliability and affordability, without enough focus on emissions reduction – the third leg of the so-called “energy trilemma”.

“We believe climate policy and energy policy are inextricably linked, and that energy reliability, energy affordability and emissions reduction should be considered on an integrated basis,” BHP said.

BHP said it had no issue with the bulk of the Minerals Council of Australia’s policy position and advocacy, and its latest industry association review “did not identify any material differences between BHP and the MCA on climate and energy policy”.