BHP has announced a five-year, $400 million Climate Investment Program to develop technologies to reduce emissions from its own operations as well as those generated from the use of its resources.

Andrew Mackenzie, BHP CEO, said: the program will, over the next five years, scale up low carbon technologies critical to the decarbonisation of its operations. He added: “It will drive investment in nature-based solutions and encourage further collective action on scope three emissions.

“Commercial success of these investments will breed ambition and create more innovative partnerships to respond collectively to the climate challenge.”

This year alone, BHP has announced several initiatives looking to reduce its carbon footprint, namely: releasing the world’s first bulk carrier tender for LNG-fuelled ships for iron ore transport, signing an agreement with Mitsubishi to explore new emission reduction technologies and making a $6 million equity investment into Carbon Engineering Ltd, a company looking to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Mackenzie said: “We must take a product stewardship role for emissions across our value chain and commit to work with shippers, processors and users of our products to reduce scope three emissions.”

Other measures the company announced today include:

• Establishing a new medium-term, science-based target for scope one and two emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. “This is in addition to BHP’s short-term goal to cap 2022 emissions at 2017 levels, and long-term goal of net-zero emissions by mid-century,” the company said;
• Developing a new climate portfolio analysis report in 2020, following on from BHP’s 2015 two degree scenario analysis. “This new report will evaluate the potential impacts of a broader range of scenarios and a transition to a ‘well below’ two degree world”, and;
• Strengthening the link between emissions performance and executive remuneration. From 2021, this link will be clarified to further reinforce the strategic importance and responsibility of reducing emissions as a business, BHP said.

Mackenzie concluded: “We require a considered and orderly transition to a lower carbon world, in which resource companies like BHP have both critical expertise and a key role to play.”