BHP has fallen into line with Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s mantra that emissions reduction should occur via technology, not bankruptcy.
After years of BHP plying for Green applause, its newly minted CEO Mike Henry has turfed the company’s activism and delivered record wealth instead.
- BHP's new management offloads activism and replaces it with performance.
- Hard core environmental activists in a tizz over new era of corporate pragmatism.
- BHP profits and share price booming.
BHP’s stunning result in the second half of 2020 – along with a realisation the miner has refocussed on profits rather than climate evangelism – has seen its share price double to never-before levels of more than $50.
A glance at some of the recent announcements by Mr Henry is a refreshing change from the green gospel spouted too often by corporate cranks.
A recent article by Michael Baume in The Spectator magazine showcases BHP’s cautiously pragmatic – yet hugely profitable – approach. And hard core environmentalists are apoplectic.
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Considering themselves as corporate insiders, Greenies are furiously unhappy that BHP is now focussed on advocacy rather than activism. The era of BHP spending shareholder cash to “neutralise” its overseas clients’ emissions appears to be over.
Henry says: “We will work downstream with customers to help them further some of these technologies,” which is worlds away from his immediate predecessors’ fanatical ownership of end-user emissions.
On green steel making, BHP has taken a brave stand – at the fury of the green lobby.
Mr Henry’s stated position is that “this problem is so big and so complex that I genuinely do not think it is a matter of throwing money at it…”
“Allocating more into that space isn’t actually going to make a difference to the world,” Mr Henry said.
It is more important he says to “ensure that BHP’s dollars and technical know-how are applied in the most impactful way possible to things that we believe are going to make a tangible difference to the world’s ability to meet the climate change challenge”.
“As one of the world’s biggest bulk-freight charterers, we have launched the world’s first tender for liquefied natural gas fuelled bulk carriers,” he said.
Such an approach has returned the recently struggling BHP to the top of the pile.
According to The Spectator magazine article it has become the biggest company by market capitalisation on the London Stock Exchange.
It also looks to a prosperous future not only for its dominant iron ore (70 per cent of its latest profit) but also for its big stake in the fossil fuels it was campaigning against under the old guard.
It sees excellent rewards from its $8b metallurgical coal assets (while trying to get rid of its now effectively-worthless – and loss-making – energy coal assets after writing off $1.7b against them), with coal prices recovering over the past few months as the Chinese bans are offset by selling more to Japan, India and Europe.PC
Thank goodness BHP, the big friendly giant, has a sane CEO.
Scott Morrison has however, gone too far down the economy-destroying ‘emissions reduction’ path and needs to call out strongly those toxic Liberal MP’s who sound as though they are hellbent on the destruction of our reliable energy sources.
He should also strongly advise Berejiklian to immediately get rid of green Kean, the Minister who has just appointed Malcolm Turnbull to the Chair of the NSW Climate Policy Mockery. If she doesn’t, Turnbull will help Kean to replace her, causing all hell to break loose. I feel sick at the prospect.
Mike Henry for Prime Minister. And Mark Latham to be his deputy.
If the Liberals don’t fall in behind Scott Morrison quick smart, they will all be replaced.