Andrew Mackenzie, chief executive of the mining company BHP, has written in the Financial Times to argue that divesting from his company is “counterproductive”. He says: “Resource companies today face two inescapable truths. First, the climate is changing and, second, our activities and the use of our products are contributing to that change. These are truths that cannot, and must not, be avoided. There is a third truth: our operations have also made the world a better place. No one burns coal or gas for the sake of it.” He says that BHP realises “more than most people” the impact that rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere can have. “We can see the extinction events in the geological record,” he says. However, some of the solutions to climate change, he argues, such as electric cars, will require “more mined resources than less”. “That is why we must change the current assumption that there are easy, single solutions and acknowledge that there are many competing perspectives that must be taken into account in the pursuit of effective responses to climate change,” he says. “It is also why I believe that those who simplistically call for divestment from all resource companies are fundamentally wrong.” The FT also reports that BHP is to set new targets next year “on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its products even after they have been sold”.