Anglo American snubs SBTi as it publishes new climate targets
Miner admits its updated 2030 goals aren’t aligned with IEA or SBTi in debut transition plan, but insists its 2040 ‘ambition’ is.
Anglo American has said it isn’t “realistic” to get its climate targets signed off by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
In its inaugural climate transition plan, published on Tuesday, the mining firm explained why it couldn’t get validation from the global targets body.
It said SBTi’s requirement for businesses to set value-chain Scope 3 targets in line with operational Scope 1 and 2 emissions goals was prohibitive.
“Given the importance of the steel sector in our value chain, and the significant challenge of demonstrating a credible pathway to zero for that sector, setting a Scope 3 target of the type required by the SBTi is not realistic at this time,” Anglo American wrote.
In 2024, it was among five major miners to warn SBTi that pushing the sector to address emissions over which they had no “operational control” may prompt them “to simply divest assets and achieve ‘paper decarbonisation’ that does not reduce emissions in the real economy”.
SBTi is planning to introduce a more “focused and flexible” approach to Scope 3 targets in its updated corporate standard, which would allow firms to exclude emissions where they have “limited” influence.
New Climate Targets
Anglo American’s new transition plan only covers the next two years, but will provide a further update once it’s fully merged with Canadian miner Teck Resources.
In the meantime, it has revised its climate targets to account for the divestment of its coal and platinum businesses – a move estimated to contribute to an 86% drop in Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
The new climate targets include an absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction of 30% by 2030, against a new 2020 baseline.
Anglo American admitted this wasn’t aligned with SBTi or the International Energy Agency’s 2050 Net Zero Roadmap – although it added that its 2040 carbon neutral “ambition” was.