As bush fires and floods fuel public concerns in Australia about global warming, the country's powerful mining lobby is facing increasing pressure from investors to drop support for new coal mines, according to a dozen interviews with shareholders in global mining companies.
Nearly a third of shareholders in BHP Group, the world's biggest miner, last year voted for resolutions to ax its membership in industry groups advocating policies counter to the Paris climate accord, which aims to limit global warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius.
Although the resolutions failed, pressure from shareholders and the public has since increased on companies to ensure that lobby groups support the Paris goals, according to interviews with officials at investors in major mining companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore and Anglo American. That support includes backing energy policies that favor the rapid phase-out of coal, they said.