BHP bosses unsure ETS is the way to go

While BHP Billiton chiefs don't deny the reality of climate change a question mark
still hangs over aspects of the government's proposed emissions trading scheme
(ETS), they say.
Retiring chairman Don Argus said he was not a climate change sceptic but admitted,
at the company's annual general meeting in Brisbane on Thursday, he was sceptical
about carbon trading.
"What I am sceptical about is if you will ever get CO2 (carbon dioxide) out of the
atmosphere," he told reporters.
"If you let a trader trade something, then he has a different objective.
"I don't mind what scheme we have as long as it is taking CO2 out of the atmosphere."
Mr Argus questioned whether the current idea on carbon trading was the way to go.
Chief executive Marius Kloppers said discussions about the ETS had been ongoing for
almost two years, but BHP Billiton was only one voice of many.
"Carbon in the atmosphere is an issue and we can certainly not see a situation where
the risks around that are unmitigated," he told reporters.
"In any situation where you've got multiple parties with multiple different vantage
points, and things that they want to achieve, it be a little bit presumptuous to say
that everything that is in there (the ETS) is exactly aligned with what my idealised
outcome would have been.
"We will have to take those into account, as we make our future investments."
During the meeting Mr Argus was asked how the ETS would affect the company, but he
said he could not comment on its impact until they know exactly how it will affect
the company.
"Until we actually see where it's heading all we can do is make a best effort to try
to understand the impact on our future viability," he said.
"But until we get something firm and we know where the trade-offs are, then I think
it's premature of me to go down the path and say `yes that's something specific you
can hang on to' but we have it (the ETS) very much in our focus, I can tell you
that."