South32 has reinforced its commitment to decarbonisation, announcing a four-pronged action plan to combating climate change.
In doing so, the major miner not only showcased its future objectives but also its climate change achievements to date.
Firstly, South32 will aim to reshape its portfolio to the base metals “critical in the transition to a low-carbon world”.
The company highlighted its acquisition of a 45 per cent interest in the Sierra Gorda mine in Chile – which added copper to its portfolio – as a recent demonstration of this priority in action.
Secondly, the major miner will aim to decarbonise its operations and focus on the four operations that account for most of its carbon emissions.
South32 will also look to build further operational resilience as the physical impacts of climate change mount, while its final priority will be focused on collaboration and working with others in the industry to innovate and decarbonise the value chain.
South32 also revealed it has committed to a new goal of net-zero Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The Climate Change Action Plan comes as part of South32’s Sustainable Development Report 2022 and will be the subject of a non-binding advisory resolution at the company’s 2022 annual general meeting. This will provide shareholders with an opportunity to discuss and provide feedback on the approach.
South32 chief executive officer Graham Kerr said that within 12 months of the company being established, it committed to supporting the objectives of the Paris Agreement and set a long-term goal to achieve net-zero operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.
“In FY21 we set a medium-term target to halve our operational GHG emissions by 2035 from our FY21 baseline,” he said.
“Over the past seven years, South32’s portfolio has undergone a major transformation to focus on the metals critical to the transition to a low-carbon world, and part of our strategy is to identify opportunities to sustainably reshape our business for the future.”