Former top BHP economist urges tougher government policies to push miners to decarbonise

According to The Guardian, a former chief economist at the mining giant BHP is calling for tougher government climate policy to push major resource companies toward decarbonisation. Dr Huw McKay says the preferred tool is, in his words, a carbon price — something governments would need to impose to, quote, move the needle on hard emissions decisions. His comments come amid a reported slowdown in BHP's own climate action. Internal documents leaked to Guardian Australia and the ABC earlier this year showed the company had delayed large renewables projects in the Pilbara, scrapped a project that would have delivered significant emissions cuts, and weighed pushing the electrification of its diesel truck and train fleets into the next two decades.

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