Glencore to update climate plan in 2024 after investor pressure

Glencore will publish an updated climate action transition plan in March 2024, it said on Wednesday, after some investors rejected its climate progress report and it agreed to buy Canadian miner Teck Resources’ steelmaking coal business.

More than 30% of Glencore’s investors, including major shareholder BlackRock, rejected the company’s climate report at its annual meeting in May, demanding more clarity on how it will meet its commitments to cut emissions.

Around 29% of shareholders also backed a resolution seeking more disclosure on progress in scaling back its production of thermal coal, the most polluting of its resources.

In November, Glencore agreed to buy Teck’s steelmaking coal unit, paving the way for an eventual spin-off of its entire thermal and metallurgical coal business within 24 months of the deal’s close.

Glencore on Wednesday said it will address the climate-related aspects of the acquisition, without giving details.

It also said it will continue to engage with shareholders and other stakeholders, as well as monitor external developments.

Many of the world’s biggest listed companies published their first climate action plans to cut emissions in 2020, in a bid to help reach the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of capping temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.

(By Clara Denina and Eva Mathews; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Alexander Smith)