Industry super fund, Vision Super, today urged other investors to vote for the resolution they have co-filed for BHP’s Australian AGM on 7 November with the support of investors worth AUD $12.3 trillion collectively.
The resolution calls for BHP to suspend membership of industry associations whose advocacy is inconsistent with the goals of the Paris agreement to limit climate change to 1.5◦C above pre-industrial levels.
Chief Investment Officer Michael Wyrsch said the result at the BHP Group plc AGM in London had seen almost a third of shareholders fail to support BHP management on the issue, but Vision Super is hoping to see a stronger result in Australia.
“We’re urging other industry super funds in particular to support the resolution,” Michael said.
“A vote for BHP management on this resolution is a vote against sensible climate and energy policy in this country. And that’s a vote against the certainty business needs to invest in Australia.
“As industry funds, our members retirement outcomes depend on that certainty, and I can’t see how anyone could justify supporting this damaging, climate-wrecking lobbying.
“BHP is a major funder of industry associations that are lobbying against sensible climate policy, and their suspension of these memberships would hit them where it hurts.
“Just this week, we’ve seen the NSW government backflip on the independence of the state’s planning process after a campaign from the NSW Minerals Council.
“The government is now planning to amend the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act to deal with the NSW Minerals Council’s concerns about the planning process accounting for the carbon emissions from coal mines.
“This kind of lobbying is against our interests as shareholders in BHP, and it’s against everyone’s interests who wants a habitable planet to live on.”
