Rio Tinto Ltd

Rio Tinto discloses a well-structured governance process that seeks to keep both its policy advocacy and its trade-association memberships aligned with its climate commitments. The company states that "The Rio Tinto Board approves our positions on climate change policy, our approach to engaging with industry associations and our annual review of their advocacy," while "Responsibility for comparing Rio Tinto's positions with those of individual industry associations is delegated to management on a 'comply or explain' basis," demonstrating clear lines of oversight and accountability. It undertakes an annual, published assessment: "We review the climate advocacy of our industry associations each year, publish this review on our website and consider it when we decide whether to renew our membership," and it has shown it will act on the findings: "In 2022, we decided not to renew our membership of the Queensland Resources Council" when advocacy was judged inconsistent with the Paris Agreement. The review applies explicit climate criteria such as whether associations "Advance the Paris Agreement goals" and whether their coal positions "must be consistent with Paris targets." For direct lobbying, submissions to government are governed by an internal sign-off process in which they are "developed by subject matter experts, reviewed by government relations and legal teams, and then approved by the relevant country director or senior executive," and these submissions are "guided by our overall policy positions" that support market mechanisms and Paris alignment. This indicates strong governance of both direct and indirect climate lobbying. However, the company does not disclose an externally assured lobbying audit covering its own advocacy, nor evidence that the Board explicitly reviews direct lobbying activities, leaving some aspects of monitoring less transparent.