One of the world’s biggest mining companies said it had not called on the Albanese government to slow down the shift from coal to renewables, contradicting a page one story in The Australian claiming it had.
On Monday, The Australian wrote that the Swiss-based multinational Glencore had “urged the Albanese government to slow down the transition from coal to renewables” in what was described as an “intervention” by the company’s chief executive, Gary Nagle.
Glencore’s supposed position was repeated in an editorial in the same newspaper.
But in a response, Glencore told Guardian Australia in a statement: “Our position is that the transition should NOT be slowed down [capitals in the original of the statement]. Glencore is a major global producer of the critical minerals essential to the transition and we are Australia’s largest producer of cobalt, nickel and zinc.”
Glencore said the point the company had attempted to make was that the planet “must move to zero/low carbon energy” but this was taking too long, which meant “fossil fuels such as coal [would] still be needed for the short to medium term to provide base load power as renewables are rolled out”.
Coal would be important, the company said, in the short to medium term, “allowing the time and space for an orderly energy transition”.
When asked if the company had raised the issue with The Australian, Glencore declined to comment.
The Australian’s editor did not respond to a request for comment.
In August, Glencore said it had decided against a demerger of its coal business, partly because it could use the cash to “fund opportunities in our transition metals portfolio, such as our copper growth project pipeline”.
The company said at the time it would “continue to oversee the responsible decline of its thermal coal operations over time”.
Glencore has closed three Australian coalmines since February 2023, and has said it will close three more Australian mines and a further four internationally before 2035.
The company is pursuing environmental approvals to extend the life of its joint-venture HVO mine in the Hunter Valley, which the New South Wales environment watchdog has described as the largest coalmine proposal ever put forward in the state.
Anne-Louise Knight, the lead Australian coal industry analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said Glencore’s decision not to spin off its coalmines “does not necessarily signal a doubling-down on coal” because it meant the company could have control over cutting coal production, and emissions.
She said questions remained about Glencore’s lack of a plan to lower production of steelmaking coal, or how the HVO mine would fit into its transition plans.
Naomi Hogan, of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, said coal was not a “transition fuel” as Glencore’s Nagle suggested in The Australian, but a fossil fuel in “terminal decline”.
She said Glencore was still showing an appetite for coal expansion with the HVO venture and the company was increasing its reserves of steelmaking coal.
