There’s also no evidence that “reliable and affordable” electricity means coal (which is more expensive than electricity from renewables, even without counting the cost of the impacts of climate change). Notice anything odd? The UK hasn’t paused commitment to net zero and there’s no credible link between net zero policies and blackouts. One poll asked: “Australia should pause its commitment to the policy of net zero emissions by 2050, as the UK has done, until we have enough energy supplies to avoid blackouts.”Īnother asked: “Australia should build new coal-fired power stations to ensure families have reliable and affordable electricity all year round.” In recent weeks, the Institute of Public Affairs has been promoting two “polls” which they claim show most Australians want net zero policies paused and coal-fired power stations built. This is best avoided if you want to get a sense of genuine public sentiment. If you want to find out what a person thinks about a particular thing, then there are ways of asking a question that would tend to elicit a certain response. Glencore has a goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and the spokesperson said the company had been “very transparent about our climate change commitments and the responsible managed decline of our global coal business”. The campaign would highlight that Glencore is “both a producer of fossil fuels and … one of Australia’s largest producers of metals (cobalt, nickel, zinc and copper) which are essential for renewable energy technology, electric vehicles and a low carbon future”. Temperature Check asked Glencore why its campaign ignored its thermal coal portfolio whether the campaign was “greenwashing” and asked about its investments in expanding thermal coal while claiming to be laying foundations for a low carbon future.Ī Glencore spokesperson said there were “four pillars” to the company’s brand campaign to be rolled out over the next 12 months, which would be an “introduction to Glencore, rehabilitation, energy (including coal) and metals”. In a document sent to the Queensland government in 2020 about the Valeria mine, the company said it was “Australia’s largest coal producer” with production of more than 100m tonnes of saleable thermal and metallurgical coal in 2018. Glencore is also waiting for environmental approvals for its $1.5bn Valeria mine in Queensland that would produce between 14m and 16m tonnes of coal a year. But according to its 2021 annual report, it spent US$2m expanding mines in Australia that extract those metals and minerals.Ĭompany annual reports show that in 20, Glencore spent US$259m expanding its Australian thermal coal production and another US$535m sustaining the thermal coalmines it already operates.Ĭan a company really be laying the foundations for a low carbon future when it’s spending close to a billion dollars sustaining a product that’s doing the opposite? The company does mine lots of these products.

Panning up and down in flame painter