Gold price surge adds glitter to tarnished miners
Gold miners are generating cash, boosting dividends and announcing plans to buy back shares.
BHP Group Ltd said on Wednesday it would allow a vote at its next shareholder meeting on whether the world’s biggest listed miner should disclose details such as capital allocation and life of its fossil fuel assets.
The resolution, proposed by activist investor Market Forces, requests BHP detail how its capital spending in coal, oil and gas assets will align with a scenario in which global energy emissions reach net-zero by 2050.
It also seeks production guidance for the lifetime of those assets and information about expected costs of decommissioning and rehabilitating the sites at the end of their life.
The resolution requests BHP detail how its capital spending in coal, oil and gas assets will align with a scenario in which global energy emissions reach net-zero by 2050
It comes after BHP last week approved $802 million in development spending on oil projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
“Be it coal, oil, or gas, BHP remains in expansion mode,” said Market Forces campaigner Will van de Pol.
“While the company’s own analysis shows a rapid low-carbon transition makes good business sense, it is simply failing to align its strategy with this outcome,” he said in a statement. “Instead, BHP is betting billions against the Paris climate goals.”
Market Forces said it had lodged the resolution on behalf of more than 100 shareholders including members of the net zero asset managers initiative who have committed to the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.
BHP, which will hold AGMs on Oct. 14 in London and Nov. 11 in Perth, said in a filing the proposed resolutions were filed by shareholders representing less than 1% of its holdings.
The global miner last week received a separate resolution to increase oversight of lobby groups it associates with to make sure that policies they advocate are in line with the Paris climate accord.
(By Anushka Trivedi and Melanie Burton; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Tomasz Janowski)
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