Oz Government Handed Out Repeated Approvals For Extra Emissions To Billiton At 8/14 Mines
Mining giant BHP has repeatedly applied and been granted approval to increase its emissions under an Australian government policy that promised to limit carbon pollution from big industry. Government data shows BHP exceeded its initial emissions limits, set under the scheme known as the “safeguard mechanism”, at eight of its 14 large Australian industrial sites since 2016-17.
The increases continued as BHP’s outgoing chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie, last year called for drastic action to combat the climate crisis, and committed the company to keeping its emissions at or below 2017 levels by 2022 and reaching net-zero emissions in the latter half of the century.
Across its Australian major facilities, BHP has been allowed a 13% increase in emissions limit in three years. If it emitted up to its new limit at each site it would increase national emissions by 425,689 tonnes a year. The company was also required to buy and submit more than 81,000 carbon credits for exceeding its new, increased pollution limits as two sites.
The increase in BHP’s emissions limits, known as baselines, was calculated by the Australian Conservation Foundation and confirmed by the Clean Energy Regulator, which administers the scheme. The big miner is not alone. An analysis by the Australian Conservation Foundation found the government had approved increases in industrial emissions over the past two years that could allow more than 7m tonnes of additional pollution each year, about 1.3% of annual national carbon pollution.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/17/australian-government-granted-bhp-repeated-approval-to-increase-carbon-emissions
