Rio Tinto won’t allow UK investors to vote on Mineral Council issue

A move urging Rio Tinto to rethink its funding of the fossil fuel lobby has suffered a setback – the Anglo-Australian mining company has refused to present a shareholder motion on the issue to its annual general meeting in the UK.

Last week, institutional investors who manage a combined $84bn in funds – and hold about $100m of Rio Tinto shares – filed a motion to the Australian arm of Rio Tinto, calling for a review of the company’s funding of industry association memberships.

They said some of those groups lobbied for outcomes that hindered sensible climate and energy policy, and therefore harmed the financial position of the company.

The move followed a similar motion filed at BHP, which won a significant minority of votes and resulted in the company announcing it would quit the World Coal Association and reconsider its membership of the Minerals Council of Australia.

Like Rio, BHP is dual-listed in the UK and Australia, and it presented the motion to its annual general meetings in both countries.

But it has emerged that Rio Tinto will not allow its UK shareholders to vote on the motion. Neither BHP nor Rio were legally obliged to present the motion to their UK AGMs, since they were filed only to the Australian arms of the companies.

“That demonstrated BHP is not afraid of hearing from its shareholders on these issues,” said Brynn O’Brien, executive director of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, which organised the BHP and Rio Tinto motions.

Source: theguardian