The global mining, oil and gas giant said lobby groups such as APPEA should advocate for national emission reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement, and for policies including carbon pricing and market mechanism.

It also said lobbyists should avoid advocating for policies that explicitly favour or preclude one energy source over another, or specifically, against the deployment of renewable energy. 

It also said advocacy should be based on the best available evidence and avoid the use of ambiguous terminology, particularly in relation to climate issues.

APPEA has been criticised by at least one of its members for its ambiguous language on climate change -  in its review on industry associations' positions on climate change, Origin Energy said while there was a high level of broad alignment with APPEA, it said it "lacks details around its climate change policy principles." 

"We will continue to advocate the association and its members on the need to support national targets based on climate science that are aligned to the Paris Agreement goals," Origin said. 

In its Climate Policy Principles document APPEA says Australia must "develop risk-management strategies to reflect likely impacts of climate variability" and "climate and energy policies must be integrated and harmonised".

APPEA chief Andrew McConville told Energy News its climate policy "directly reference the Paris Agreement and its objectives." 

"BHP continues to be an active member of APPEA, as does Origin," he said. 

The huge mining and petroleum company holds LNG assets in Australia's west and 50% of the legacy Bass Strait oil and gas project offshore Victoria with ExxonMobil as well as shares of large offshore oil projects in Mexico, the US share of the Gulf of Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago. 

At last year's petroleum day it broke ranks with other peers to outline a path of more oil than gas or LNG-focussed production. Many supermajors in Australia and Europe have increased their share of gas in portfolios given its growth and its cleaner credentials when generating power. 

APPEA's climate policy advocates for investment into "low-carbon" technologies, as opposed to "zero-carbon" technologies, as is pushed for by the Paris Agreement, however it does advocate for carbon, capture and storage, which Santos is progressing in the Cooper Basin. Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher is the current chairman of APPEA.  

Earlier this year, global giant BP announced its withdrawal from three industry associations out of several dozen, as they did not align with their ambition to be net-zero by 2050. 

However it maintained its membership of APPEA saying its positions aligned on Paris and climate science and there were no significant misalignments in other areas. 

BHP also said advocacy groups should avoid pushing for measures that may exacerbate policy tensions, using the issue of Australia's use of Kyoto carryover credits as an example.  

The carryover credits issue was taken to the last round of world climate talks by the federal government and was backed by APPEA, the  Business Council of Australia and the Minerals Council of Australia.

The government argued that because Australia had overperformed in its Kyoto agreement targets, the carbon reduced under that agreement should be counted towards our emission reduction targets under Paris.  

The idea was criticised by other countries given Australia was the only country in the world advocating for it, while Climate Council head of research, Dr Martin Rice described it as "dodgy accounting trick". 

BHP said lobby groups should prioritise advocacy towards areas that present the greatest benefit to members and communities more broadly. 

Investor groups including AMP Capital, BMO Global Asset Management and HSBC welcomed the move.

BMO co-head of responsible investment Alice Evan said BHP's new governance will help prevent "misalignment between its climate change position and the way the company represents itself in public policy debates through industry associations". 

"As industry leaders like BHP mask firm commitments on climate transition, we welcome this effort to ensure that trade associations remain in step with their more forward-thinking members," HSBC global asset management head of corporate governance Thomas O'Malley said.