Rio Tinto posted the best annual profit in its history in 2021 and paid shareholders a record dividend of $16.8 billion for the full year, thanks to higher iron ore prices and strong demand of the main consumer, China.
The reputation of the Anglo-Australian miner has suffered, however, from a report he published in February exposing bullying, racism and sexism at the company, and the Serbian government’s shutdown of its lithium project in the country in January.
“We have a lot of work to do – but I believe we are on the right track,” CEO Jakob Stausholm told the AGO.
In October, Rio announced a $7.5 billion plan to reduce its emissions by 2030, seeking to halve its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions – direct company emissions and certain types of emissions. indirect – by the end of the decade.
Rio, however, did not detail how it plans to reduce Scope 3, or customer emissions, but said it was working with partners.
“Given the large Scope 3 footprint of Rio Tinto, (which) accounts for 95% of total missions, the lack of concrete targets is concerning,” said proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), which provides voting recommendations to shareholders.
Investment manager Sarasin and Partners voted against Rio’s financial accounts and auditor KPMG’s reappointment, saying it’s unclear how the costs of delivering carbon commitments were factored in in the company’s financial statements.
Rio is dual-listed in London and Sydney and the votes will be counted and made public at its Melbourne AGO on May 5.