Australia is one of the largest per capita greenhouse gas emitters due to its reliance on coal-burning power stations to power homes and industry. After almost a decade of heated political debate, Australia’s Conservative government repealed a much questioned carbon tax on the nation’s worst greenhouse gas polluters. Among UK-listed companies with coal operations in Australia are Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Glencore Xstrata and Rio Tinto.
Vedanta subsidiary KCM is Zambia’s biggest employer with 18,000 workers, 11,000 of which are reported to be on short contracts and un-unionised. Vedanta took over KCM from Anglo American in 2004. Since KCM was privatised in 2002, miners claim their conditions have worsened, and protests have become even more regular in recent years.
An arbitration hearing in the London High Court of Justice heard recently how Vedanta has used a Dubai based subsidiary called Fujairah Gold to buy under-valued copper from its subsidiary KCM, and hide its profits, in a scam known as transfer mispricing.
British firm Essar Energy’s plans for open cast mine in Mahan forest plans could destroy villages and five million trees. (Essar delisted from the London Stock Exchange in early June following the completion of a controversial move to take the group private by the company’s owners, the Indian Ruia family.)
British firm Essar Energy’s plans for open cast mine in Mahan forest plans could destroy villages and five million trees. (Essar delisted from the London Stock Exchange in early June following the completion of a controversial move to take the group private by the company’s owners, the Indian Ruia family.)
