Chris Bowen says he has made it ‘crystal clear’ to BHP and other big polluters they must cut emissions onsite

Australia’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen, says he has made it “crystal clear” that he expects industrial polluters including BHP to reduce their onsite emissions after leaked documents revealed that the world’s biggest miner has backtracked on climate action . An exclusive investigation based on documents leaked to by the Guardian and the ABC show BHP has scrapped a project to significantly reduce global emissions , delayed vast renewables projects in the Pilbara and war-gamed options to push the electrification of its polluting diesel truck and train fleets into the next two decades. It did so despite internal memos as recently as 2023 saying that: “Urgent decarbonisation in line with BHP’s public commitments effectively underpins [the Western Australian iron ore division’s licence to operate, sustain and grow.” Experts and analysts say the slowdown in BHP’s decarbonisation progress shows the failure of a key climate policy, the safeguard mechanism, and the influence of the diesel tax break the federal government gives to big miners including BHP. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Bowen said on Tuesday that BHP was still subject to the safeguard mechanism and he had made his expectations “crystal clear” to emitters publicly and privately. He said the safeguard did “provide some flexibility” because the roughly 200 major industrial polluters that it applied to faced “different challenges and opportunities” to cut emissions. …