Teck targets 33% carbon reduction by 2030

Image by Teck.

Teck Resources (TSX, NYSE: TECK) announced on Thursday a target to reduce carbon intensity by 33% by 2030 as part of its new sustainability strategy.

This builds on the previously announced commitment to be carbon neutral across all its operations and activities by 2050, Teck said.

The move comes just weeks after Teck walked away from plans to build the C$20.6 billion ($15.7 billion) Frontier oilsands mine, only days before the Canadian government was slated to make a decision on the 260,000-barrel-per-day project in northern Alberta. Canada's largest diversified miner will take a C$1.13 billion ($852.12 million) writedown on the project.

This builds on the previously announced commitment to be carbon neutral across all its operations and activities by 2050

"We are always challenging ourselves to improve sustainability performance, so we can be sure we are providing the mining products needed for a cleaner future in the most responsible way possible," CEO Don Lindsay said in the media release.

"We have set ambitious new goals for carbon reduction, water stewardship, health and safety, and other areas because we believe that a better world is made possible through better mining."

Teck's sustainability strategy also includes goals to procure 50% of its electricity demands in Chile from clean energy by 2020 and 100% by 2030 and accelerate the adoption of zero-emissions alternatives for transportation by displacing the equivalent of 1,000 internal combustion engine vehicles by 2025.

Last fall, Teck launched new electric passenger buses to transport employees to and from its Fording River and Greenhills steelmaking coal operations in British Columbia's Elk Valley region.