Mining and Sustainable Development II - DTIE

Mining
attracted widespread membership and strong
commitment from industry and has produced
impressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
in both absolute terms as well as relative to either
business- as- usual, or emissions per unit of production.
Each member company develops an inventory
of emissions and an action plan of projects to
reduce emissions, which is updated yearly. The
company submits its plan to government and
reports to it on performance against plan. Companies
participating have described the cultural and
management change which has resulted from the
program and the business benefits which have also
accrued in many cases as increased focus has been
placed on energy and other operational efficiencies.
The mining and minerals processing sectors
have been at the forefront of the program. In terms
of participation in the Greenhouse Challenge Program
by the Australian minerals industry, the
recent Evaluation Report highlights that 78 per
cent of emissions from mining (including 91 per
cent from coal mining) are covered by companies
participating in the Greenhouse Challenge Program.
On the minerals processing side, 89 per cent
of emissions from machinery and metals manufacturing
is covered by the Challenge with 100 per
cent coverage from aluminium and iron and steel.
Orphan site clean-up
An innovative scheme started in the United
States by The Conservation Fund and the
National Geographic Society has resulted in
Asarco Inc. (now part of Grupo Mexico) cleaning
up an abandoned mine site that it does not
own. The scheme encourages companies to
adopt voluntarily an abandoned site for which
they have no liability and to clean it up for a
desired benefit or credit. In Asarco’s case, a mine
waste pile at the former Queen Elizabeth and
Tomboy mines in Clear Creek, near Idaho
Springs, was remediated by removing the waste.
The waste was disposed of in the Keensburg facility
owned by Coors Brewing Co., free of charge.
The project was coordinated by Colorado’s
Department of Public Health and Environment,
the US Environmental Protection Agency and
the Clear Creek Watershed Forum.
Accelerated reduction and/or
elimination of toxics (ARET)
In 1991, toxic substances were a focus for the
Canadian mining industry and, with academics,
the environmental community approached the
Canadian government and launched a process to
identify and reduce or eliminate toxic substances
linked to industrial activity. The subsequent
ARET programme by 1993 targeted some 117
substances, in five categories, for reductions of
90% for 30 of the most bioaccumulative sub-
International Conventions and Guidelines Affecting Mining
A number of environmental issues have such extended scope – either in
their impact or in the way they need to be addressed – that only a collective
approach to action can be effective. Global issues such as climate change or
biodiversity are two examples of issues of truly international importance.
Where trade restrictions are used to mitigate environmental impacts, as for
example in the tranfrontier dumping of waste, again only international
action can solve this problem.
International Conventions on Environment, sometimes called Multilatral
Environmental Agreements or MEAs, have been developed by the international
community of nations to address this global aspect of our
environmental agenda. The increasing globalisation of our economic and
social fabric has resulted in a large number of such global instruments on
environment protection. Many of these are relevant to the mining industry,
although few actually single out mining in the text. But national obligations
to control certain substances, protect selected areas of global
importance, take trade measures to reduce impact and so on means that
mining companies are affected by many of the Conventions listed below.
Drafted and negotiated on the basis of consensus, international Conventions
are legally binding instruments once a minimum, negotiated number
of countries have ratified the Convention. Protocols are sometimes used
to define the implementation mechanisms for specific Conventions in certain
action areas, as for example the targets and methods of achieving reductions
of emissions of gases that affect the global atmosphere (Montreal and
Kyoto Protocols under the Vienna and Climate Change Conventions
respectively). UNEP has helped to bring a number of Conventions into
being, and has subsequently been designated as the Secretariat for some of
them, however the Convention and its action programme remains a matter
for the contracting parties.
In addition to formal Conventions, a number of international meetings
result in soft instruments such as guidelines, recommendations, Declarations
and policy statements. These are not legally binding, and may or may
not be accompanied by implementation mechanisms. Nevertheless they
remain useful policy guides for countries and industry alike. They are frequently
reflected in the organisational priorities and action programmes of
international institutions, national agencies and bilateral assistance programmes.
In this, they may also influence the attitude to and funding priorities
for mining development.
International Conventions on the environment1
1971 RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands provides the framework for
national action and international cooperation for the conservation
and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and
Natural Heritage (the World Heritage Convention). More than 150
countries are signatories. (www.unesco.org/whc).
1973 Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of
Wastes and Other Matter (London Dumping Convention) was
established to control pollution of the sea by dumping of wastes
including heavy metals which could create hazards to human health
or to harm living resources and marine life.
1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution - to combat
acidification and pollution from long range transport air pollutants
(www.unece.org/env/lrtap).
1982 Law of the Sea Convention - to take measures to prevent, reduce and
control the pollution of the marine environment (www.un.org/
Depts/los).
1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of
Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal - designed to minimise the generation
and transboundary movement of hazardous waste which has
impacted metal wastes destined for recycling (www.unep.ch/basel).
In 1999, the Protocol on Liability and Compensation to the Basel
Convention established rules on liability and compensation for damages
caused by accidental spills of hazardous waste during export,
import or disposal (www.unep.ch/basel/COP5/liability).
1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty
(PEPAT) - Article 7 prohibits any activity related to mineral resources
in the Arctic region other than scientific research (www.antarctica.ac.
uk/AboutAntarctica/Treaty/protocol).
84 ◆ UNEP Industry and Environment – Special issue 2000