ACCR cuts ties with Rio Tinto after anti-climate lobbying

August 1st, 2024

The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) has disengaged with mining company Rio Tinto following negative advocacy.

ACCR announced it would no longer work with the company to improve its climate-related lobbying after the firm lobbied the Australian government to reduce climate disclosure requirements.

ACCR has been working with Rio Tinto since July 2023 to support the company in its pledge to positive climate advocacy.

However, ACCR said it was recently revealed that the company was a signatory on a letter to the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, written earlier this year, asking him to “personally intervene” on pending reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

The letter requested that the Prime Minister remove a proposed new object in the act that would require climate change and greenhouse gas emissions be considered when assessing new projects.

The letter was only made publicly available after a freedom of information (FOI) request by Greenpeace Australia.

It claims that the proposed rule changes would duplicate existing requirements and “establish a direct pathway for duplication of other requirements”.

Naomi Hogan, company strategy lead at ACCR, said: “ACCR views Rio Tinto’s heavy-handed advocacy to the Prime Minister to be inconsistent with the company’s own commitments for enhanced climate advocacy and transparency.

“Claiming that a climate trigger is duplicative with the Safeguard Mechanism is willful misinterpretation at its best. Rio Tinto and the Business Council of Australia are well aware that, unlike potential emissions considerations in federal assessments, the Safeguard Mechanism was never designed to assess the lifecycle climate change impacts of proposed coal and gas projects.”

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