“Governments are setting more ambitious targets and accelerating actions on climate change ... society at large is also demanding companies take more action to decarbonise,” Rio Tinto said in a statement.
A key part of Rio’s investments will be earmarked to clean up its operations in Australia,where its vast iron ore mines provide up to 90 per cent of the group’s earnings. These are mainly powered by emissions-intensive gas-fired electricity and Rio said it would invest in building 1 gigawatt of new wind and solar power to help replace natural gas.
At its Boyne Island and Tomago aluminium smelters,the company is advancing plans to power the sites with renewable energy,requiring an estimated 5 gigawatts of solar and wind power,along with a “robust” firming solution.
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Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm said the miner’s commodities were vital drivers of the energy transition and continued to benefit from ongoing urbanisation.
“We have a clear pathway to decarbonise our business and are actively developing technologies that will enable our customers and our customers’ customers to decarbonise,” he said.
Australia’s big three miners – BHP,Rio Tinto and Fortescue – have been progressively increasing the strength of their emissions targets over recent weeks amid mounting pressure for the carbon-heavy resources sector to do more to respond to the worsening climate emergency.