Lèbre Éléonore, Stringer Martin, Svobodova Kamila, Owen John R, Kemp Deanna, Côte Claire, Arratia-Solar Andrea, Valenta Rick K
Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.
W.H. Bryan Mining & Geology Research Centre, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.
Nat Commun. 2020 Sep 24;11(1):4823. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18661-9.
Environmental, social and governance pressures should feature in future scenario planning about the transition to a low carbon future. As low-carbon energy technologies advance, markets are driving demand for energy transition metals. Increased extraction rates will augment the stress placed on people and the environment in extractive locations. To quantify this stress, we develop a set of global composite environmental, social and governance indicators, and examine mining projects across 20 metal commodities to identify the co-occurrence of environmental, social and governance risk factors. Our findings show that 84% of platinum resources and 70% of cobalt resources are located in high-risk contexts. Reflecting heightened demand, major metals like iron and copper are set to disturb more land. Jurisdictions extracting energy transition metals in low-risk contexts are positioned to develop and maintain safeguards against mining-related social and environmental risk factors.
环境、社会和治理压力应在未来向低碳未来转型的情景规划中有所体现。随着低碳能源技术的进步，市场正在推动对能源转型金属的需求。开采率的提高将加剧采矿地区人们和环境所承受的压力。为了量化这种压力，我们制定了一套全球综合环境、社会和治理指标，并研究了20种金属商品的采矿项目，以确定环境、社会和治理风险因素的同时出现情况。我们的研究结果表明，84%的铂资源和70%的钴资源位于高风险环境中。反映出需求的增加，铁和铜等主要金属将会扰动更多土地。在低风险环境中开采能源转型金属的司法管辖区有能力制定并维持针对采矿相关社会和环境风险因素的保障措施。
