Group commits to a stated emissions path as a condition of project approval

Capital projects across the group must now present a stated emissions reduction trajectory as a condition of approval. A project that cannot show one will not proceed, and the return profile is not a mitigating factor.

The requirement applies at the approval gate rather than at commissioning. The group's experience is that a reduction path introduced after a project is underway becomes an offsetting exercise, because by then the design decisions that determine the profile have already been made.

Two projects in the current pipeline have been returned to design as a result. Both are expected to come back, later and with a different specification, which the investment committee has described as the intended outcome rather than a delay.

The requirement does not apply retrospectively to assets already in operation. Those remain covered by the group's existing site-level reduction commitments and by the verification regime described in the annual report.