An internal memo from BHP, leaked to the Guardian and ABC's Four Corners, reveals the mining giant has significantly scaled back its climate ambitions. The memo, dated May 2025, outlines plans to delay key decarbonisation projects in its Pilbara iron ore division, including a major wind and solar project and the electrification of its truck and rail fleets.
Just six years after former CEO Andrew Mackenzie described climate change as an 'existential' threat, the memo states that the urgency for BHP to source renewables has 'diminished'. It warns that the company's plan to achieve net zero in the Pilbara by 2050 has a 'low probability of success'. Options presented include delaying battery-electric truck and train rollouts until 2035 or even 2040, or doing nothing at all.
The memo acknowledges that delaying action would require 'resetting of targets' and carries 'reputational risk' for breaking commitments in its climate transition action plan, which shareholders overwhelmingly supported. BHP has also cancelled a project that could have significantly reduced emissions and continued purchasing polluting diesel trucks despite earlier plans to fully electrify its fleet from 2027.
In response, BHP stated it has already reduced emissions by 36% from 2020 levels and is the second-best performer among Australia's largest listed companies. However, the leaked documents suggest a stark reversal of the ambitious climate stance taken by Mackenzie in 2019, when he called for the 'biggest global mobilisation since World War II' to combat global heating.
