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Sustainable Mining
"Sustainable mining" captures the broad efforts by the mining industry to improve current operations in ways that minimize environmental harm, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce impacts on local communities.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes with "very high confidence" that "there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all." To do so, the world needs to transition away fossil fuels (e.g., coal, oil, natural gas). Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy generation (e.g., wind, solar, nuclear) can enable decarbonization of energy systems. However, renewable energy supply chains still rely on mining for energy transition minerals, which can have large environmental and social impacts.
There is increasing pressure on mining companies to minimize environmental harm, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from their operations, and reduce impacts on local communities. This trend is apparent in the sustainability and ESG initiatives of several large mining companies as well as the voluntary standard setting initiatives such as IRMA (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance), ICMM (International Council on Mining and Materials), RMI (Responsible Mineral Initiative), Copper Mark, and more.
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The term "sustainable mining" can vary widely across mining companies and voluntary standards framework. What is common amongst these is ambition to do better -- what will set companies and frameworks apart is proper implementation and adaptation to local contexts.
Tenets of Sustainable Mining
Minimize Environmental Harm
YADA YADA YADA
Decarbonize Operations
Reduce Local Impacts
Many Faces of Mining
Large-Scale
Medium
Artisanal
Types of Mines
Hardrock
Brine
Clay
IRMA Audits (4 Pillars)
Business Integrity
Planning for Positive Legacies
Social Responsibility
Environmental Responsibility
Panel Three Title
The deleterious impacts of climate change affect the poorest populations hardest, a fact that distributes the onus of financing climate adaptation and mitigation in developing countries upon multiple agents, including developed country actors in both the public and the private sector (UNFCCC 1997, UNFCCC 2015, UN 2016). The public sector is responsible for protecting the wellbeing of vulnerable and marginalized communities. However, the public sector can’t act alone to mobilize the resources to mitigate, adapt, and respond to the effects of climate change at the required global scale. Thus, the private sector and multilateral partnerships are important to complement not only the pool of capital, but also the strategic and administrative capabilities to deploy their investments.
Panel Four Title
Multilateral partnerships and development finance institutions have an important role to play when it comes to the transfer of funds from developed countries to developing ones. Since the beginning of the global climate negotiations, developing countries have fought to include a transfer of financial resources from industrialized countries to facilitate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Diplomatic efforts have led to internationally endorsed declarations, agendas and conventions governing climate change that reflect the developing countries’ history and current needs. This has created both the concept of “common but differentiated” responsibility and placed industrialized nations in a leadership role in the climate regime.
The need for a commitment to a significant transfer of finances is mainly due to two factors -
1. The historical burden of climate change rests upon the industrialized countries as the developed countries have contributed to 70% of the anthropogenic greenhouse gasses (GHGs) since 1850 (Stern 2009).
2. The costs of climate change are enormous and beyond the financial capacity of developing nations. The estimates of the cost of adaptation for developing countries for 2030 vary from USD 80-90 billion to 134-230 billion per year (UNDP 2007).
Thus, it is imperative that funds and investments flow from developed countries to developing ones and that the amounts pledged align with targets set to limit global warming.
Panel 5 Title
On the other hand, the private sector has the capacity to innovate and reach scale far more effectively than the public sector. Private sector instruments have a critical role to play in incubating, accelerating, and scaling up disruptive technologies and other sustainability solutions to the climate crisis. For reasons explained before, the private sector is predominantly engaged in climate change mitigation as opposed to adaptation. In terms of investments into mitigation, instruments can range from de-risking the investment in new technologies (i.e. a climate fund’s willingness to commit senior capital and to absorb the risks should the investment fail) to the act of making direct investments in new firms and technologies on based on return of investment (i.e. the Tesla story). The public sector also plays a role in supporting the market case for investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation through policy drivers. For example, between 2000 to 2020, feed-in tariffs for renewable energy generation supported the growth of solar and wind power in Germany and the UK neither of which are very sunny places!
Panel Six Title
 Technology solutionsDe-risking investments in new technology |  Accessible financeDirect investments in potentially lucrative ventures |  Climate friendly regulationsLeverage regulatory drivers towards climate finance investments |
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 Adaptation focusInternational commitments to publicly support climate change investments for the most vulnerable |  International mechanismsPromote investments via Kyoto Protocol’s flexible mechanisms, Paris Agreement’s Article 6, etc. |  Corporate actionExamples include corporate commitments to achieve net zero emissions, carbon removal, etc. |
Five ways finance can unlock robust climate action from G20 countries
by Overseas Development Institute
*Disclaimer - views expressed in this article are the expert's and not associated with any company or organization