Shareholder activist group Australasian Center for Corporate Responsibility has eased its pressure on Rio Tinto over the company's industry association memberships. In the runup to the company's Australian annual general meeting in May, the ACCR has withdrawn a shareholder resolution to force Rio Tinto to refrain from using shareholder funds to pay for membership fees to what the ACCR views as a coal industry lobbying group.

The ACCR holds a small portfolio of shares in ASX-listed companies which it uses to table AGM resolutions aimed at making companies improve their management of environmental, social and governance issues. It had tabled a resolution similar to the one that was recently withdrawn for Rio Tinto's 2018 AGM and received just over 18% of votes in favor. It pulled the refiled resolution for this year's AGM in Perth after the company clarified its stance on lobby groups.

Rio Tinto issued a statement April 11 explaining how it aims to use its membership in various industry associations to pursue global climate change targets. It also intends to publicly oppose government coal subsidies, an industry it exited a year ago.

The ACCR has taken aim at Rio Tinto's membership to the Minerals Council of Australia, which is the country's main mining lobby.

Dan Gocher, the ACCR's director of climate and the environment, said Rio Tinto's April 11 document was a "negotiated outcome" after 18 months of discussions with Rio Tinto about its membership of Minerals Council of Australia, or MCA.

A coal-fired power plant in Beijing.

Gocher said Rio Tinto's understanding of lobby groups' role in opposing climate action is much greater than a year ago. However, the ACCR would still press the miner at the May 9 meeting on industry associations, not only due to remaining concerns over the MCA but the pro-coal lobbying of the Queensland Resources Council and the Business Council of Australia, both of which Rio Tinto is also a member.

He cited the MCA's November 2018 submission to an Australian government inquiry into power generation which argued that base load power would continue to be critical for Australia, which Gocher said could mean coal, in addition to gas or hydro power.

Meanwhile, the Business Council of Australia's policy document also issued April 11 argued for investment in existing and new power generation supplies to lower electricity prices, and Gocher said again that this could point to coal.

BHP Group had threatened to leave the MCA in 2018 because of the council's coal advocacy. Both BHP and Rio Tinto had lobbied the MCA on the issue until the lobby group moved to "close the gaps" which BHP had identified in the industry association's energy policy in 2018.

By the end of 2018, Rio Tinto said there was "no significant difference" between its own and the MCA's stated policy positions for that year. This was not the case with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Mining Association which did not support the Paris Agreement as it could damage the U.S. economy.

Rio Tinto's April 11 document included a quote from MCA CEO Tania Constable saying her group acknowledges that sustained global action is required to reduce the risks of human induced climate change.

"[We] have an important role to play in supporting a measured transition to a low emissions global economy in the public policy debate," she said, adding that the MCA supports Rio Tinto's latest commitment to partner and advocate for policies that advance climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement and keeping a global temperature increase to below 2 degrees.

Constable told S&P Global Market Intelligence the MCA also supports a technology-neutral approach for all low emission energy sources that are "reliable, affordable and sustainable," and does not believe energy sector subsidies are justified as they "distort investment decisions."