Sustainable environmental technologies crucial to SA mining industry's future

Environmental compliance monitoring & enforcement

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), a non-profit organisation and law clinic, assists communities and civil society organisations in South Africa by advocating and litigating for environmental justice. Catherine Horsfield, CER Attorney, shares her thoughts.

What steps has the mining industry taken to become more environmentally-friendly over the past 10 years?

Mining companies continue to apply for coal mining rights in sensitive environments that are at the highest risk for mining, and government departments continue to accept those applications, and frequently grant those rights. The mining industry needs to invest more with reference to self-regulation in the face of poor state capacity to monitor and enforce compliance with environmental and water laws.

Are laws and legislation adequate to meet COP targets?

Although the law now recognises that climate change impact assessments are mandatory for listed projects, there is no legal mechanism in place to monitor projected emissions at a cumulative and collective level. While the Climate Change Bill does introduce carbon budget and emission trajectories as mechanisms for managing emissions to meet COP targets, it lacks details and timeframes in which some of these measures need to be implemented.

Beyond legislation, we are also going to need critical coordination and implementation capacity at a national level, to ensure compliance with mitigation targets; and at provincial and local government levels to provide adequate response to adaptation challenges.

The Presidential Climate Commission, which will become a permanent institution when the Climate Change Act is passed, has a crucial role to play, not only to ensure coordination amongst spheres of government and government departments, but to monitor and report on progress against climate targets.

Considering the fact SA is a developing country with a high unemployment rate, can there be a balance between mining and the environment?

While it is true that the mining industry has been a major contributor to the South African economy, the vast majority of South Africans did not share in the economic benefits of the mining industry over the majority of its two-century history in this country. Moreover, the environmental externalities of mining – the water and soil pollution, the loss of land, the air pollution, and the health costs associated with these – have not been borne by the mining industry and those who finance it, but rather by the communities living around these mines.

The Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) standards can play an essential tool to enable communities to negotiate their own development outcomes, including the benefits they would need

to enjoy if they are to endure the impact of mining on their land. Mining companies should support its integration into our legal framework.

Increasingly, there is recognition of the interdependence of climate, ecosystems, biodiversity and human societies. It is crucial that we integrate these systems, rather than pit them against each other.

What are your thoughts about moving away from coal and moving towards cleaner, renewable energy solutions?

The mining, transportation and combustion of coal all cause severe pollution and environmental degradation, and the impacts are often irreversible.

Coal’s status as a cheap fuel relies on its actual costs not being reflected in its market price, and the coal industry would not remain profitable if these costs were internalised. Often the poorest and most vulnerable communities pay the price for these externalities.

For example, the 2008 Greenpeace report The True Cost of Coal estimated that global external costs of coal amounted to around €360 billion in 2007 and could soar to more than €3.6 trillion over 10 years.

A move away from coal-based electricity generation to renewable energy solutions is long overdue. We need to plan for a just transition which secures the future and livelihoods of workers and their communities in the transition to a lowcarbon economy, stop subsidising fossil fuel companies and prioritise rehabilitation of land and water that has been contaminated by coal mining and burning.

Acid mine drainage caused by mining What key changes are needed in the mining industry?

Wits Law Professor Tracy-Lynn Field proposes some of the elements of a new mining sector in her book, State Governance of Mining, Development and Sustainability.

These include the need for a transformed state that understands its role as being the advancement of human rights and wellbeing, and equitable prosperity. Beyond that, we also need the state to consider whether the end use of the mineral commodity promotes equitable prosperity and human wellbeing, and whether this justifies the opportunity cost of extracting it, rather than just considering the level of investment, or the financial and technical capacity of the mining proponent.

Another important element, promoted by University of Pretoria economist Lorenzo Fioramonti, is proper exploration of opportunities for mineral recycling, and manufacturing that relies heavily on recycled materials. This will include sustainable agriculture, tourism and the knowledge sector, as forms of industrialisation that are lowintensity, smaller scale and labour-intensive, in line with our burgeoning youth population.

Lastly, we will need a far more rigorous system of protection for important areas of biodiversity, strategic water source areas and food-producing zones from mining.

Government has spent decades and millions studying and identifying these areas. What is now required is legal protection, and investing in implementation, compliance and enforcement. 