• 2008 At A Glance
• Our Approach To Sustainability
• Our Approach To Sustainability Reporting
• Our Stakeholders
• Sustainable Development Governance
• Healthy People
• Safe Workplaces
• Environmental Commitment
  • Environmental Commitment - Our Approach
  • Climate Change
  • Biodiversity And Land
  • Water
  • Wastes
  • 2008 Performance
  • Case Studies
• Our People
• Social Responsibility
• Socio-Economic
• Case Studies
• Reports
• HSEC News
• Contact Details

Climate Change

BHP Billiton acknowledges the risks of climate change and the need for accelerated action to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at acceptable levels.

Our climate change position includes greenhouse gas and energy targets and measures, investment in research and development of low carbon emissions technologies, and a commitment to participate in the design of effective national and international climate change policies.

Our position reflects priorities around stakeholder attitudes, changing government policies, and potential business opportunities consistent with BHP Billiton's aspirational goal of Zero Harm to employees, communities and the environment.

Engagement and Disclosure

We take an active role in climate change policy development in key regions where we operate and market our products, including promoting such key principles as market-based measures and international emissions trading. Our Policy commits the Company to work with governments and other stakeholders on the design of equitable and efficient climate change policies.

For the past six years, BHP Billiton has participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which provides a secretariat for the world's largest institutional investor collaboration on the business implications of climate change. In addition, BHP Billiton has been selected to the CDP Climate Leaders Index for the past four years (2004 to 2007), representing the 'best in class' responses to the CDP questionnaire and revealing for investors which companies have the most comprehensive climate disclosure practices in place.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting and New Targets

In 1995, we were one of the first participants in the Australian Greenhouse Challenge program, which was designed to encourage reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. We started measuring greenhouse gas emissions from our global controlled operations in 1993 and have publicly reported our greenhouse gas emissions data since then. As of 2007 our reporting has also included greenhouse emissions associated with employee business air travel.

We exceeded our original target of a 10 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas intensity between 1995 and 2000 and again exceeded our subsequent target of a further five per cent reduction between 2002 and 2007.

On 18 June 2007, BHP Billiton announced new global targets of a 13 per cent improvement in energy intensity and a six per cent improvement in greenhouse gas intensity to be achieved by the year 2012 from a base year of 2006. Intensity is measured as total energy consumed, or greenhouse gases emitted, divided by total tonnes of production. Our targets were developed based on production forecasts and plans for greenhouse gas reduction projects from individual facilities and businesses. The individual forecasts were combined to achieve a weighted corporate target. Stretch reductions beyond the business forecasts were incorporated in the targets.

Research and Development

A significant element of our new policy is a US$300 million financial commitment to invest in energy efficiency improvements and alternative energy for our operations, support research and support development and demonstration of low emissions technologies with relevance to our businesses, customers and communities. We aim to build on existing partnerships with customers, governments, peer companies and academia and develop new projects and partnerships.

We continue to support projects that seek to advance low-to-zero carbon emissions technologies for fossil-fuel derived energy such as Australia's COAL21, Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies and the Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development. These projects cover such technology areas as coal gasification, oxyfuel, and carbon capture and sequestration. BHP Billiton is a also partner of the FutureGen Alliance. The US Department of Energy (DoE) has also been a major financial sponsor of this program.  The DoE in January 2008 announced plans to restructure FutureGen to a series of smaller projects; this restructure is still progressing.

Climate Change Risk

Our businesses assess the potential impacts of climate change through our Enterprise-wide Risk Management process. The potential physical impacts of climate change on our operations are highly uncertain and will be particular to the geographic circumstances. These may include changes in rainfall patterns, water shortages, changing sea levels, changing storm patterns and intensities, and changing temperature levels. These effects may adversely impact the cost, production and financial performance of our operations.

In addition our Carbon Pricing Protocol requires the businesses to incorporate carbon pricing scenarios into business plans. Carbon pricing sensitivity analysis is required to be included in the cost structure for investment decisions on new projects and acquisitions that would emit more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per annum. This analysis includes a range of prices for developed and developing countries based on likely scenarios of government requirements and technology deployment, as well as the associated costs and economic impacts over an extended period of time. Our price series for carbon is revised regularly and has appropriately high and low ranges to reflect the uncertainty associated with forecasting the price of carbon credits. The price series are also intended for use in strategy development.

Carbon Trading

We have identified emissions trading as an area of opportunity. We have developed expertise in emissions trading in Europe to offer support to our customers in meeting their obligations arising from the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). From a strategic perspective this is also helping us to understand better the market dynamics of the emerging carbon market and how it interacts with markets for energy. Our Energy Marketing group continues to trial coal bundled with Certified Emission Reduction units (raised via clean development mechanism projects) to our coal customers in Europe. This allows us to develop knowledge and skills in emissions trading and enables us to better package the fuel supply requirements of our customers. Our Energy Coal Customer Sector Group also includes the potential implications of greenhouse gas emissions regulation in its base case supply and demand forecasts and in its business strategy.

Find out more:

• Carbon Disclosure Project