MAC: Mines and Communities

Aussie journalist calls Rio Tinto boss "nauseating greenwasher"

Published by MAC on 2020-03-03
Source: Financial Review (Australia)

 

Rio Tinto's climate of incoherence

Joe Aston

Financial Review (Australia)

27 February 2020

There goes that supreme iron ore machine Sam Walsh and Chris Lynch built
at Rio Tinto, disgorging a further $US7.2 billion ($11 billion) in cash.

Only against this flush backdrop is their eccentric successor
Jean-Sébastien Jacques allowed to persist with his nauseating
greenwashing. While he’s cutting cheques of this many zeros he could
launch a space mission for exploitable minerals and institutional
investors would slow clap.

“Our ambition is clear: to get to net-zero by 2050,” he boldly declared on
Thursday, but confessed, immédiatement, to having found no way of
achieving it. “We do not have a road map but we are working on it.” That’s
right – Rio has in mind an elegant number, and nothing else. Plainly, JS
is the Bill Shorten of global resources *

“It means all of our future growth will need to be carbon neutral,”
Jacques added, even observing specifically that “the global task of
reducing carbon emissions will require … decarbonisation of energy
generation”.

But only two weeks ago, he decided to build a coal-fired electricity plant
to power his copper mine in Mongolia.

After the impact of its construction, this monstrosity will besmirch the
atmosphere with around 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 annually for the next 40
years.

Retiring the equivalent carbon credits will replant three Amazons.

* Editorial note: Bill Shorten is a long-standing Australian Labor Party
MP and a current shadow cabinet minister

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