Climate change

We recognise that climate change and its physical impacts may create operational risks for our industrial assets.

We regularly review and analyse high-level climate change trends and their potential to affect our operating regions. Where relevant and possible, we undertake mitigation and management measures for example reviewing the design of our tailings storage facilities.

To deliver a strong investment case to our capital providers, we recognise the need to invest in assets that are resilient to regulatory, physical and operational risks related to climate change.

We support climate and energy policies that reduce global GHG emissions in the most cost-effective manner, whilst ensuring energy security. Our preference is for policy makers to adopt a pragmatic, technologyneutral approach that supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including universal access to affordable energy.

Greater policy parity between renewables and HELE and CCS technologies will be required. Deployment of HELE technologies, particularly in developing economies, which will continue, in the near and medium term, to rely on fossil fuels for secure baseload power generation, offer a compelling case for achieving material emission reductions, while still being able to achieve socio-economic development goals.

HELE and CCS have the potential to deliver material emission reductions from the global energy complex. CCS is also applicable to synthetic fuel production and other industrial processes.

We are investing in emission reduction projects and initiatives, focusing on both our industrial operations and the use of our industrial products, as well as supporting low-emission coal technology projects and GHG-related studies to address Scope 3 emissions.

We support the use of carbon credits to offset residual emissions. Glencore will consider the business case for both generating and utilising carbon offsets as part of its climate change strategy in relation to offsetting our residual industrial emissions (after prioritising emissions reductions) to meet our 2050 net zero ambition, which itself is subject to a supportive policy environment.

Our business continues to operate successfully in multiple jurisdictions that have direct and indirect carbon pricing or regulation. We consider carbon price sensitivities as part of our ongoing business planning for existing industrial assets, new investments and as part of our marketing activities.

We play a constructive role and proactively engage with policy makers throughout the public policy development process from initial design through to implementation and compliance. Pricing carbon should be part of an informed and considered process to provide market signals to drive the behaviours and incentivise investments that deliver the least cost approach to emissions reductions. Carbon pricing mechanisms should support predictable long-term pricing and avoid carbon leakage, as well as enable consistent jurisdictional approaches.

We recognise the role of a circular economy in reducing the carbon footprint of metals and minerals. We are committed to increasing our engagement into the circular economy by leveraging our commercial knowledge and physical presence.

We recognise the global climate change science as laid out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This broad consensus among nation states will drive a global shift towards a low-carbon economy, supported by appropriate policies and bring significant economic changes.

We have enhanced our climate-related disclosures over the past several years and will continue to review and update our strategy.

In 2017, we announced our first target of reducing our industrial Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 5% by 2020 compared to a 2016 baseline. In late 2020, we published our 2020 Climate Action Transition Plan, Pathway to Net Zero. This set out our approach to delivering our climate-related targets and longer-term ambition of achieving net zero industrial emissions, subject to a supportive policy environment. In 2021, we further increased our medium-term target from a 40% to a 50% reduction of our industrial emissions by the end of 2035 and introduced a shorter-term target of a 15% reduction of our industrial emissions by the end of 2026.

As part of our update to our Climate Action Transition Plan, in 2024 we announced a further interim target to reduce our industrial emissions by 25% by the end of 2030. Our current industrial emissions reduction targets are measured against a restated 2019 baseline and our long-term ambition to achieve net zero industrial emissions by the end of 2050 is subject to a supportive policy environment.

In addition, in July 2024 we successfully closed our acquisition of a 77% interest in EVR from Teck Resources. We are currently assessing how best to integrate the EVR assets into our climate strategy, recognising that the transition away from steelmaking coal will be slower than thermal coal.

We support a least-cost, technology neutral approach to achieving climate change goals that considers the cost and consequences of all available policy options and does not hinder socio-economic development or undermine energy access and security.

The transition to net zero will require several technologies to achieve the world’s decarbonisation goals.

The IEA has identified hydrogen as playing a role in the decarbonisation of hard to abate sectors, such as heavy industry, shipping, aviation and heavy-duty transport.

We believe that blue hydrogen produced from fossil fuels with CCS to capture emissions from the hydrogen production process could play an important role in the transition towards net zero.

Blue hydrogen and by-products, like ammonia with CCS, offer an approach for decarbonising existing industrial processes and the ability to utilise existing energy resources.

Just transition speaks to an equitable and inclusive process to navigate and address the social and economic risks and opportunities faced by a range of stakeholders that will emerge because of the global transition to a low carbon future. We believe that a just and orderly transition will be a highly complex process that must be dynamic with the flexibility to respond to evolving policies and socio-economic developments. Society must address the social risks and opportunities from both closure of fossil fuel assets and the expansion of metals used in renewable energy production.

Our approach to a just and orderly transition takes account of its complexity and our interdependence with other companies and the public sector. Our operating countries face very different transition outlooks, and a successful social transition is dependent on government policy and funding to address widespread and systemic challenges. We have established a set of principles to guide our localised approach to participating in a just and orderly transition process.

We support a global mechanism that delivers a carbon credit market with stable pricing. We recognise that carbon credits may become a material means to offset our emissions footprint and may have reputational benefits. As such, we are building our understanding of the carbon offset markets and monitoring their developments. In addition, we are investigating opportunities in credible projects with reputational and social benefits, such as reforestation projects.

As the global patchwork of energy and climate change regulation evolves, Glencore will continue to monitor international and national developments and play a constructive role in the development of climate change policy across our global business group. Governments and industry must work together to establish policy frameworks that deliver the optimal balance of social, environmental and economic considerations appropriate for individual nations. This may include pricing carbon as part of a balanced transition to a low-carbon economy.