Coal is "not essential to human progress", Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson has declared in the face of pressure from activist shareholders over the mining giant's response to climate change.
Mr Thompson made the remarks in response to comments at the company's annual general meeting by Julien Vincent, executive director of the environmental finance group Market Forces.
"In the case of coal, there are viable alternative sources of energy, that do not produce greenhouse gases. So we would argue that coal is not essential to human progress," Mr Thompson said.
But it was a different story with steel. "In the case of steel, there are no obvious substitutes in a whole range of applications," he said.
Mr Thompson told the meeting in Perth that even wind turbines used a vast amount of steel.
"It is our judgment that steel is essential to human progress. If you take an advanced economy like Australia, there's probably about 10 to 12 tonnes of steel installed around us per capita, in buildings, in bridges, in transportation, in machines of all kinds," he said.
"If you take a developing nation like India, it's only one tonne. So unless we are going to freeze the development of the world in its current state, it is inevitable that people are going to have to produce primary steel in order to develop," he said.
Iron ore is a key ingredient in steel-making, and Rio is Australia's biggest producer of the commodity.
Mr Thompson said it wasn't iron ore that introduced carbon into the steel manufacturing process.
"It is the coking coal, that is added in the blast furnaces, that results in the greenhouse gas emissions during the production of steel," he said.
"And there are alternatives, technically feasible alternatives, to using coking coal in the steel-manufacturing process."
The British citizen made the comments on coal just hours after it was confirmed that Britain had gone for a whole week without burning coal to create power, for the first time since the Industrial Revolution. The biggest contributor to electricity generation in Britain for the week was natural gas.
Mr Thompson's comments sparked recollections of former prime minister Tony Abbott saying "coal is good for humanity, coal is good for prosperity, coal is an essential part of our economic future, here in Australia, and right around the world", in 2014.
Mr Vincent was speaking as he urged Rio shareholders to vote in favour of a resolution that called on the miner to release annual plans about how to reduce scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from an activity, while Scope 2 emissions have been described as "indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy".
In the case of Rio, scope 3 emissions include those generated by its customers burning iron ore to make steel.
Mr Thompson said Rio's board agreed with some of the resolution, but could not support it.
"The main reason that your board cannot support resolution 19 is that it calls for Rio Tinto to set targets for scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 (emissions) are primarily the emissions of our customers, mainly steel-makers in China, Japan and Korea, over which we have very limited control," he said.
But Mr Vincent told shareholders that Rio had "a massive degree of exposure to sectors that need to decarbonise". He also said it was "disappointing that Rio would baulk at a proposal that would allow the company to reduce its exposure to risks, that it already knows it possesses".
After the meeting it emerged that the resolution didn't gain much traction with shareholders, with just 6 per cent of votes cast in its favour.
Rio's shares fell 0.6 per cent to $95.35.
