In May, 2001 Rio Tinto became the first mining company to join the Business Environmental Leadership Council, a project of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, of Washington DC. This is an organisation that provides an influential forum on climate change issues, and produces research in the areas of climate change science, economics, technology, and policy.

By becoming its 33rd member Rio Tinto signed up to the following principles:

• We accept the views of most scientists that enough is known about the science and environmental impacts of climate change for us to take actions to address its consequences;
• Businesses can and should take concrete steps to assess opportunities for emissions reductions, establish and meet emission reduction objectives, and invest in new, more efficient products, practices and technologies
• The Kyoto agreement represents a first step in the international process, but more must be done both to implement the market based mechanisms that were adopted in principle and to more fully involve the rest of the world in the solution; and
• We can make significant progress in addressing climate change and sustaining economic growth by adopting reasonable policies, programmes and transition strategies.