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Main Content

Our climate ambition

Tackling climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time.

Mining’s critical enabling role in providing the metals and minerals needed for a low carbon world is increasingly recognised. Against this backdrop, we know that understanding the implications of climate change for our business is imperative. 

Being resilient as a company however, is not enough. We also recognise our responsibility to understand the impact of our business, to minimise our footprint and maximise the value we create for all our stakeholders. Doing so is right for the long term sustainability of our business and the right thing for society. We see this as part of living our Purpose – re-imagining mining to improve people’s lives. 

Our portfolio of world class operations, development projects and undeveloped resources provides many of the metals and minerals that enable a cleaner, greener, more sustainable world and that cater to demand trends of a growing global population. The copper, platinum group metals (PGMs), nickel and premium-quality iron ore that we produce are key raw materials for renewable electricity generation and distribution, for the electrification of transportation (in all its forms) and for other emerging technologies such as smart grids and the hydrogen economy. The introduction into our portfolio of low-carbon, organic polyhalite fertiliser, through the development of the Woodsmith project, means than 90% of our growth capital expenditure is allocated to projects in these future-enabling products. 

Tra sition Pillars

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Document library

Title
Format

2023 Climate Change Report

Industry Associations: 2023 Review

Industry Associations: 2022 Review

2022 Climate Change Report

2021 Climate Change Report

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Informed by robust analysis and constant engagement with stakeholders, we continue to work to align our asset and product portfolio with the needs of a low carbon world; we are re-orientating our operations towards carbon neutrality – and doing so in a value-accretive way; we are pushing for decarbonisation along our value chains; and we are considering carefully the social and wider environmental interrelationships associated with our decarbonisation journey – doing what we can to support a Just Transition.

2023 Key Highlights

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Our performance

Scope 1 - 2023

Scope 1 - 2023

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Scope 2 - 2023

Scope 2 - 2023

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Scope 3 - 2023

Scope 3 - 2023

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A clear pathway to carbon neutrality

We recognise our responsibility to support a transition to a low carbon economy and have identified pathways to achieve our ambition of becoming carbon neutral (Scope 1 and 2) across our operations by 2040.

Achieving our ambition of operational carbon neutrality is a complex, multi-dimensional challenge. It begins from a clear and detailed understanding of current emissions sources. This understanding allows us to take decisions on the best means of abatement.

See our Climate Change Report 2023 for full details of our carbon reduction activities.

A clear pathway to carbon neutrality

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Decarbonising our value chain

Since setting our ambition to reduce our Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2040, we have worked to turn that ambition into a pathway for action.

Concentrated under four key pillars our focus so far has been on the processing and use of our products (Categories 10 and 11), our supply chain (Categories 1 and 2) and our ocean controlled freight (Category 9).

For full details on our Scope 3 pathway, see our Climate Change Report 2023.

Decarbonising our value chain

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Adapting to a changing climate

For over 10 years, we have been working to ensure that our operations have the best available models to understand, assess, mitigate and adapt to the physical risks of climate change. We are already experiencing the impacts of a changing climate at our operations. The forecasts are clear that these impacts will increase over the operational life of our assets. It is vital that we identify the potential changes and adapt to them to ensure that our business remains resilient.

Our aim is to reduce the risks from the harmful effects of climate change to an acceptable level in addition to identifying and capitalising on any opportunities arising from the changes.

Our approach to physical risks can be found in our Climate Change Report 2023.

Adapting to a changing climate

Accountability and Governance

We are committed to updating shareholders and other stakeholders on the progress we are making in implementing our climate change priorities on an annual basis. In addition, we will seek shareholders’ view on any material changes to our plans in respect of climate change when they occur, or at least every three years through an advisory resolution at our Annual General Meeting.

Climate-related advocacy

Anglo American is committed to conducting all lobbying in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. This commitment has been clear since 2015 when we signed the Paris Pledge for Action. Our aim is to support the efforts of governments in meeting and exceeding their ambition to keep the world on a trajectory that limits global temperature rise to well-below 2°C and ideally to 1.5°C above pre-industrial averages.

Industry association memberships are important for Anglo American. They add real value to the company’s understanding of and engagement in a wide range of issues, including in respect of policy advocacy. Many of the industry associations of which we are a member do not advocate and the majority do not have a position on climate-related policy. However, some are relevant when considering climate-related advocacy and we expect those Industry Associations to take the same approach as we do and ensure that their advocacy supports the goals of the Paris Agreement.

We have clear governance in place to ensure that industry associations remain aligned to our own policy positions on climate-related advocacy. In addition, we have committed to completing and disclosing an independent review of the alignment of our industry associations with our policy positions every two years. The independent review sits alongside our annual disclosure of all associations of which we are a member. This disclosure includes the rationale for our membership, any leadership positions we hold in each association and our associated financial contributions.

Learn about our Policy Advocacy

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