Rio Tinto has signed on as a future buyer of carbon credits from Meldora, a new Australian platform designed to scale up land-based carbon capture and sustainable agriculture projects.
The mining giant will act as a foundational offtaker, committing to purchase credits as the platform expands.
Meldora launched this week with $200 million in funding from Canadian pension fund La Caisse and a further $50 million from the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Carbon credits are increasingly used by resource companies to offset emissions that cannot be eliminated outright. Rio Tinto has pledged to halve its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 from 2018 levels, with credits expected to contribute up to 10 per cent of that target.
Meldora has already secured its first project, purchasing a 15,000-hectare farm in Queensland. The property will be managed for sustainable agriculture and carbon sequestration, laying the foundation for its initial credit portfolio.
The deal highlights Rio Tinto’s growing reliance on a mix of operational changes and financial instruments to meet its climate goals.
Alongside offsets, the company is also investing in renewable energy, electrification of mining fleets and low-carbon steelmaking technologies.
Carbon credits remain contentious, with critics arguing they allow companies to pay for pollution instead of reducing it at the source.
Supporters counter that well-regulated projects can deliver meaningful environmental benefits and channel investment into areas such as land management and carbon storage.
By backing Meldora at launch, Rio Tinto is helping to establish a domestic platform that could direct substantial capital into Australia’s carbon market.
The move also signals a broader shift in the resources sector, where companies are increasingly turning to both innovation and offsets to meet ambitious emissions targets.
As carbon markets grow, the credibility of projects will be under close scrutiny. For Rio Tinto, the strategy represents both an environmental commitment and a calculated bet that high-quality offsets will play a long-term role in the transition to net zero.
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