Rio Tinto iced out by investor advocate ACCR over climate stance
An Australian shareholder advocacy group said it would no longer engage with Rio Tinto after the miner lobbied the Australian government to remove a reference to climate change impacts in impending environmental legislation.
Rio Tinto, Hancock Prospecting, and several other Western Australian industry parties sent a letter to Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressing concerns about the government's 'nature positive' environmental reforms.
The letter, which became public after a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by Greenpeace, contained an appeal to remove climate change requirements such as carbon emissions as a trigger for assessment. The names of other companies were redacted.
The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), which owns a small stake in Rio, said the appeal was inconsistent with the miner's own public commitments for enhanced climate advocacy and transparency, adding that the miner's actions were a "breach of trust", as it was not informed of this position.
"ACCR is now stepping away from an agreement to support climate and decarbonisation related engagement with Rio Tinto. We will not participate in engagements that could rightly be perceived as greenwashing," it said in a statement.
Engagement with Rio Tinto would only be possible again once the company clearly and formally updated its advocacy position on the environmental reforms, ACCR added.
Rio Tinto said in a statement that it supported strong environmental protection and that it looked forward to engaging with the Australian government to ensure the new rules were practical and workable.
"We believe reform should drive both stronger environmental and heritage protections and more efficient approvals processes," it said in a statement.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
ENVASS is a customer and solutions-driven environmental consultancy with established divisions, serviced by highly qualified and experienced...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Supplier & Distributor of the Widest Range of Accurate & Easy-to-Use Alcohol Breathalysers
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
