Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto announced on Wednesday a $ 7.5 billion investment plan to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, causing a severe drop in stock prices as investors reacted to higher spending. >
Rio Tinto has pushed back its target of 15% reduction in emissions from 2018 levels to 2025, five years faster than previously planned.
“This is a major shift, but this is the future of Rio Tinto,” CEO Jacob Stausholm said at a media briefing ahead of the conference and investor day presentation.
To meet this goal, Rio will increase investment in renewables, ramp up R&D spending on decarbonization, and double spending on mining critical to the energy transition to about $ 3 billion annually from 2023 year.
Rio has raised its capital spending plans for 2022 to $ 8 billion from $ 7.5 billion and said it expects to spend $ 9 billion in 2023 and $ 10 billion in 2024.
The world's largest iron ore supplier said this month that it is testing new technology that will use biomass instead of coking coal in its steelmaking process to reduce industrial carbon emissions, and also said it is considering using hydrogen. p>
Rio Tinto's new targets exceed those of the rival BHP Group, which aims to reduce production emissions by 30% by 2030.
Rio plans to use 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar and wind power to decarbonize its iron ore production, replacing gas-fired power generation.
