A former chairman of the Australian Coal Association, who has accused the fossil fuel industry of “stuffing up” effective action on climate change, is fighting an insurgent battle to gain a seat on the board of the mining giant BHP Billiton.

Ian Dunlop, formerly a senior executive in the oil, gas and coal industries, is attempting to gain shareholder support for his bid to challenge what he claims is “utter bullshit” from a resources industry that has stymied an urgent transition away from carbon-intensive fuels.

The board of BHP, which will hold an annual general meeting in London next week and another in Perth on 21 November, has called on shareholders to reject Dunlop, with the chairman, Jacques Nasser, describing him as a single-issue candidate who would add little to the board.

But Dunlop, who will fly to London for the meeting, told Guardian Australia that shareholders were “curious” about his bid and that BHP required a strong advocate for dealing with the challenge of climate change.

“This is an unusual situation, which has created a lot of interest among shareholders,” he said. “There needs to be a range of perspectives on boards or you get locked into the kind of groupthink that the fossil fuel industry has on climate change.”

Dunlop has turned to climate change activism after his career in the fossil fuel industry, chairing Safe Climate Australia and become a member of the Club of Rome, which has warned of the limits of sustainable living.

He told Guardian Australia that the resources industry had “completely ignored the catastrophic risk” posed to their business models by climate change.

“The industry hasn’t shown any leadership as it hadn’t been prepared to admit what’s happening,” he said. “If we want to keep below the limit of 2C warming, which is already far too high, we cannot continue ad infinitum in Australia talking about doubling our coal exports and tripling our gas exports.

“BHP, to be fair to them, is doing more than most but when I look around the boardrooms of Australia, the UK or US I see absolutely no recognition of the strategic implications of climate change.

“These businesses have got a horrendous problem when it comes to [climate] risk management. Waiting until it is too late and then being forced to do something in a panic isn’t risk management in my book.

“There is a mind block towards it. Some [executives] are in denial while others have this gently, gently approach, whereas the reality is far more urgent. You simply can’t do business in a world with 4C of warming. Shareholder value will go down the tubes.”

Dunlop said governments had abrogated their responsibility to lead on climate change, while the resources industry had failed to take the initiative owing to its focus on short-term profit.

“The industry used to have nation builders but now it has technocrats with a short-term focus,” he said. “Their arguments are utter bullshit. Utter nonsense. We have a global problem and if we all sit on our hands we’ll all commit suicide together.

“[Environment minister] Greg Hunt’s approach won’t do anything, so we need business leaders capable of articulating the problem. The likes of Rio Tinto and the Minerals Council express great concern about climate change but then allow [others] to whiteant any action.

“[The industry has been] actively stuffing up carbon pricing for the past decade. That’s just not acceptable anymore.”

Dunlop admitted that it was “unusual” for shareholders to ignore a board’s advice on director appointments but said he was hopeful of winning them around.

“I don’t want to be on the board to destroy the joint,” he said. “BHP is a diversified miner and has got a solid, long future, but it has got to get out of fossil fuels.”

A spokeswoman for BHP said that the company has taken a “leading role” within the resources sector on the issue of climate change.

“Consistent with this stance, we engage with policy makers on climate change and make investments to reduce our own emissions, which last year remained below 2006 levels despite the significant growth in our business in the last seven years,” she said.

“The board agrees with Mr Dunlop that climate risk is very important but believes that he does not meet the threshold for skills and experience requirements and will not add to the effective governance of the business.”