BHP admits to stalled emissions reductions as WA premier says miners have ‘moral obligation’ to decarbonise

A senior BHP executive has admitted the Australian multinational’s push to reduce emissions has been delayed as the Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, said big miners had an “important moral obligation” to decarbonise. An exclusive investigation based on documents leaked to the Guardian and ABC revealed this week that the world’s biggest miner has hit the brakes on decarbonisation, something experts fear could put Australia’s national emissions reductions targets at risk. The leaked documents show it has scrapped an iron ore processing plant that would have prevented 1.7m tonnes of emissions each year, the equivalent of removing 350,000 cars, while pushing back vast renewables projects , buying new polluting diesel fleets and war-gaming options to push critical climate investments into the next two decades. It did so despite internal memos acknowledging that slow decarbonisation would have “reputational impacts” and that: “Urgent decarbonisation in line with BHP’s public commitments effectively underpins [WA iron ore’s] licence to operate, sustain and grow.” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email On Wednesday, Tim Day, the head of BHP’s WA iron ore operations, acknowledged that its decarbonisation program had been delayed. He blamed significant obstacles to replacing the use of diesel – the biggest source of its emissions – due to what he said were slow advancements in electric trucking and rail technology. …