Leaked #BHP documents reveal something deeply broken in #Australian politics. #auspol
One of the world’s biggest #mining corporations publicly presented itself as committed to #climateaction, while internally #delaying major #cleanenergy projects, locking in diesel trucks and pushing #renewable investment years into the future.
According to leaked internal documents BHP shelved billions of dollars worth of renewable energy plans in WA, delayed the rollout of electric mining fleets, and bought new diesel trucks that could keep operating into the 2040s.
All while its #Pilbara iron ore operations made around $22 billion in pre-tax profits last financial year.
That’s the point that really hits home. BHP did not delay climate action because it lacked money. It delayed climate action because, when climate commitments came up against profit, profit won the fight.
It always will, and that tells us everything about the limits of government abrogating responsibility for the climate crisis and trusting big corporations to voluntarily step in and do the work for them.
These documents reportedly show BHP internally describing decarbonisation as “urgent” and warning that slow emissions reductions could damage the company’s reputation. But when serious investment was required, major clean energy projects were pushed back, electric fleets were delayed, and new diesel trucks were locked in.
At the same time, BHP continued publicly presenting itself as a climate leader.
This is the gap between corporate climate promises and corporate behaviour. And it is exactly why governments cannot keep letting massive corporations mark their own homework.
Corporations will not act at the speed the climate crisis demands. Governments have to make them.
That requires strong laws. Bold reforms. Proper regulation. No more public handouts for fossil fuels. And a tax system that makes big corporations pay their fair share for profiting from Australia’s resources.
Instead, #Labor keeps #protecting the very corporations slowing down climate action.
The government has #refused to tax gas corporations making obscene export profits. It continues to pay mining companies to pollute. Last year the Government paid BHP $627 million to burn diesel under the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme.
With incentives like that, no wonder BHP isn’t decarbonising.
And while people are told there is not enough money for the NDIS, public services, climate action or cost-of-living relief, some of the biggest corporations in the country are still being allowed to profit from Australian resources without doing their fair share.
Communities are already living with the consequences of climate delay. More dangerous #heat. More destructive #floods. More intense #fires. Marine life and coastal communities under pressure. Families wondering what kind of future their kids are being left with.
And while people are told serious climate action is too hard, too expensive or too disruptive, #multinational #corporations are delaying renewable projects while making billions from Australian resources.
As with the housing and cost-of-living crisis, the problem is not a lack of money. It is a lack of political guts and will.
#TheGreens could not have been clearer or more consistent: real climate action will not come from trusting big corporations to do the right thing when no one is forcing them to.
It will come from making them pay their fair share, ending public handouts to fossil fuels, and putting strict rules in place so climate commitments cannot be quietly abandoned the moment they become inconvenient.
That is why we are campaigning for a 25% tax on gas exports, which could raise at least $17 billion a year to fund the services people need, instead of leaving obscene profits with gas corporations.
And Australians are with us. More than 60% of people support a tax on gas exports because they can see the basic unfairness: gas corporations are making enormous profits from Australian resources while people are told there is not enough money for housing, climate action, the NDIS or cost-of-living relief.
These leaked documents show exactly why that fight matters.
Daniele Verducci 🧉
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Electric Trike
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Christian Kent