Climate change & energy

We believe that the activities of people and companies are causing emissions of greenhouse gas which are contributing to climate change.

So we realise that we must play our part in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. And we also understand that we must invest in research and development to find ways to reduce our energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. This will help us to ensure our continued access to markets and ability to retain our licence to operate.

How we mitigate our effects on the climate

Our climate change position commits us to reducing our emissions, developing low emission product pathways and engaging with government and stakeholders to advocate sound and efficient policies. 

We have just completed one year of our current  three-year Climate Change Plan which takes a stepped, Group wide approach to addressing each theme.  In 2006, we concentrated on gathering information to help us answer the following questions:

• What are the best market mechanisms to achieve a reduction in emissions?
• What technologies do we need to combat climate change and how do we deploy them?
• How do we better communicate our climate change position and activities, both within and outside the company?

Our Climate Change Leadership Panel is responsible for ensuring that our programme remains on course. All of our business units are implementing their own programmes in support of the plan and each business has a climate change champion. We also hold  regional workshops to encourage the sharing of information and best practice.

In addition, we are currently spending US$4 million on ten projects with the potential to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in progress across the group. 

We are also preparing to respond to the potentially severe effects of climate change and have completed an assessment of the risk of such weather related losses at our operations across the globe. 

Our results

We continue to  publicly report our actions and results under the Carbon Disclosure Project.  In 2006 we were named sector leader for metals, mining and steel with a score of 95 on a 100 point scale in its Climate Leadership Index.