Glencore
Switzerland’s Glencore is the world’s 10th largest thermal coal producer. The company produces 102 Mt of coal annually at its mines in Australia, South Africa and Colombia. Glencore has absolutely no ambition to phase out its coal production. In its Climate Action Plan, Glencore explained it dropped its coal production cap this year, because it "may now only serve to cause confusion". Glencore admits in the same report that its “targets are not aligned with the IEA NZE scenario”. The IEA NZE 2050 scenario is a globally renowned framework by the International Energy Agency. It lays out how the world can stay below 1.5°C. Instead of doing everything it can to stick to 1.5°, Glencore simply calls the scenario “increasingly unrealistic”.
Glencore has a toxic legacy all over the world. In 2022, Glencore pleaded guilty to corruption and market manipulation cases in Brazil and South Sudan. The company is linked to bribery scandals in the DRC, the murder of anti-mining activists in the Philippines, the poisoning of water supplies in Peru and many more – the list is long.
In Colombia, Glencore operates the notorious Cerrejón mine, the largest coal mine in Latin America. Glencore’s long term partner company, Drummond, is currently on trial for allegedly funding paramilitary forces in the area around Cerrejón. These paramilitary forces terrorized communities and groups that opposed the mining companies for years. People received death threats on a daily basis, many disappeared and thousands of people were killed. Former paramilitaries allege that Glencore too, collaborated with these paramilitary forces.
