I'd say a lot of you must be older investors who can't see what...

I'd say a lot of you must be older investors who can't see what lies 10-20 years ahead. This is not about virtue signalling.

Whether or not you accept climate change is real is irreverent, you must instead look at how the larger economies around the World are transitioning. The fact is, as demonstrated by COP26 recently, the World as a whole is moving towards effectively taxing carbon. It will happen overseas sooner than you think, don't doubt it. It doesn't really matter what Australian policy is, if we export materials overseas there will be a demand to offset emissions that businesses produce. Australia will lag behind but eventually it too will be forced to price carbon.

Add to that there is the very real possibility of big miners, oil and gas companies getting sued in the future over emissions if they don't look to minimise them. This is just the way the world is going, and BHP management can see what is going to happen over the next 10-20 years. They need to protect the business from future headwinds that climate policy will produce.