BHP Billiton : Climate Change Policy and Actions

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BHP Billiton Climate Change Policy and Actions

• 2007 Chamber of Mines Sustainable Development
  Conference
• BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa
• Vik Cogho
• Manager Environment

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CLIMATE SCIENCE Greenhouse Gas Effect
The Natural Greenhouse effect keeps the planet
inhabitable. The Enhanced Greenhouse effect
traps more of suns heat in the atmosphere,
causing the temperatures to rise
Greenhouse gases

• water vapour (excl. clouds) 36-70
• carbon dioxide 9-26
• methane 4-9
• ozone 3-7
• nitrous oxide
• sulphur hexafluoride
• hydrofluorocarbonds
• perfluorocarbons
• chlorofluorocarbons

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CO2 and Temperate increases
CO2 closely tracks temperature. During the past
400,000 years , CO2 concentrations never exceeded
300ppm. Today we are nearing 400ppm we are
entering uncharted territory
700
CO2
in 2100
(with business as usual)
600
500
concentration (ppm)
400
CO2 now
400,000 year peak conc.
300
2
10
CO
Temperature
difference
200
0
from now C
10
100
160
120
80
40
Now
Time (thousands of years)
Source Tim Flannery

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How big is the challenge?
The challenge is huge constant emissions until
2050 are required to stabilize CO2 concentrations
in the atmosphere at 500 ppm
Global annual CO2 emissions Gt
Base case Doubled CO2 emissions until 2050
60
(530 ppm)
50
40
26 Billion Tonnes CO2
30
20
(380 ppm)
10
0
1954
2004
2050
2100
Source US Energy Information Administration,
Robert Socolow (Princeton University)
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Climate Change Policy Fundamental Aspects

• BHP Billiton believes the risks of climate change
  associated with increasing greenhouse gas
  concentrations in the atmosphere need to be
  addressed through accelerated action
• Behavioural change, innovation and technological
  progress are necessary to achieve stabilisation
• We will take action within our own business and
  work with governments, industry and other
  stakeholders to address this global challenge and
  find lasting solutions consistent with our
  commitment to Zero Harm.

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Climate Change Policy Focus Areas

• Our actions focus on four areas
• Understanding emissions from the full life cycle
  of our products.
• Improving the management of energy and greenhouse
  gas emissions across our businesses.
• Committing US300 million over the next five
  years to support low emissions technology
  development, internal energy excellence projects
  and encourage emissions abatement by our
  employees and our local communities.
• Using our technical capacity and our experience
  to assist governments and other stakeholders on
  the design of effective and equitable climate
  change policies including market-based mechanisms
  such as emissions trading.

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1. Improving our understanding of life-cycle
emissions

• Policy Element
• Improve our understanding of greenhouse emissions
  from our production and customers consumption of
  our products
• Key Actions
• Apply benchmark standards to improve data quality
  
• Determine the greenhouse impacts of the full
  life-cycle of our products
• Report publicly with external verification

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2. Managing our emissions from production

• Policy Element Build on leading practice,
  improve energy and greenhouse gas management at
  our sites, build emissions abatement and energy
  saving considerations into our decision-making
  processes
• Key Actions
• Group energy and greenhouse emissions intensity
  reduction targets
• Build on site-based GHG and energy management
  plans, to include targets aligned with Customer
  Sector Group targets
• Promote and share leading practice to deliver
  savings in emissions and costs

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2. Managing our emissions from production (cont..)

• Policy Element Build on leading practice,
  improve energy and greenhouse gas management at
  our sites, build emissions abatement and energy
  saving considerations into our decision-making
  processes
• Additional Key Actions
• Carbon pricing sensitivity analysis in capital
  decisions
• Market trading of emissions reduction instruments
  as a means of managing BHP Billiton and customer
  emission exposures

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3. Collaboration to reduce emissions and support
research

• Policy Element
• Support research, development and demonstration
  of low emission technologies with
  relevance/interest to our businesses, customers
  and employees
• Key Actions
• Commit to invest US300 million in
• reducing emissions from the use of our products,
• energy excellence projects with a greenhouse gas
  emissions reduction element
• matching emissions reducing activities by our
  employees and local communities

FutureGen
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4. Policy Development / Influence Policy

• Policy Element
• Work with governments and other stakeholders on
  the design of effective climate change policies
  consistent with stabilisation of greenhouse gas
  concentrations
• Key Actions
• Actively engage with key governments to ensure
  our interests are effectively represented (recent
  example was BHP Billitons membership on the
  Australian Prime Ministers Task Group on
  Emissions Trading)

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Aluminium perspective and initiatives

• Significant energy consumed at Smelters
• Aluminium has emission benefits over the
  life-cycle
• Mitigation Opportunities
• Improve communication and learning within
  industry
• Promote monitoring, automation, energy
  assessments and formalised energy management
• Green design and more intelligent use of energy
  consuming systems
• Product can be recycled multiple times, only
  consuming 5 of energy compared to primary
  manufacture process

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Coal perspective and initiatives

• Energy and metallurgical coal are significant GHG
  emitters
• Mitigation Opportunities
• Support the Coal 21 Program to facilitate the
  reduction of GHG-emissions from coal based
  electricity generation, which is a partnership
  between the coal, electricity industries, unions,
  government and the research community
• Support FutureGen project to build a
  first-of-a-kind coal-based, zero emission
  electricity and hydrogen plant with carbon
  sequestration

FutureGen
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Energy Excellence Approach - Energy Excellence
Hierarchy
Eliminate
Excellence
Reduce
Efficiency Recovery
Less Greenhouse intensive
Substitute
Offset Sequestration Carbon Trading
Mitigate
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In Conclusion

• By introducing its new Climate Change Policy, BHP
  Billiton aims to position itself to both mitigate
  risk and create opportunity
• Integrate climate change with our business,
  becomes the way we do business
• Industry needs to work together and as a
  collective move forward, sharing pockets of
  excellence

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