Rio Tinto admits 2025 climate target in jeopardy without carbon offsetting

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🗞️ Driving the news: Mining giant Rio Tinto expressed that, without the use of carbon credits as a "last resort," achieving its 2025 decarbonization target seems unlikely
• CEO Jakob Stausholm attributed this complexity to the swift expansion of the industry and the time needed for innovative solutions to take effect

🔭 The context: In 2021, Rio Tinto established goals of reducing direct and indirect emissions by 15% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030, relative to a 2018 baseline
• However, Stausholm expressed that many of the necessary technologies still need to be developed and refined, causing delays

🌎 Why it matters for the planet: Rio Tinto's disclosure underscores the challenges heavy industries face in emissions reduction
• Their considerable contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions signifies that their transition to eco-friendly operations is vital to worldwide decarbonization initiatives

⏭️ What's next: Despite the challenges, the company aims to decrease its emissions by increasing its investments in large-scale renewable power projects
• The company has already managed to cut its emissions by 7% relative to its 2018 baseline, largely due to implementing large-scale renewable power alongside its operations

💬 One quote: “What we are learning is that certain things take a bit longer, there is a lot of technology that doesn’t exist and has to go through an R&D funnel, and that just takes a long time.” (Jakob Stausholm, Chief Executive of Rio Tinto)

📈 One stat: Rio Tinto plans to spend $7.5 billion on decarbonisation efforts between 2022 and 2030.

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