Episode Details
Back to Episodes
Climate action and growth need to reinforce each other, Minerals Council event hears
Episode 100
Published 16 hours ago
Description
This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.
Climate considerations are increasingly shaping how business is done, Minerals Council South Africa senior climate specialist Shalendra Subramoney said on Friday, October 30, in launching the council's inaugural Climate Change Day of Learning, attended by public and private sector climate mitigation representatives.
"Mining is central to both South Africa's development and the global climate transition. We need to reduce emissions and strengthen resilience while attracting the investment needed to grow a competitive mining sector, sustain and create jobs, support communities, and bolster South Africa's economic development. Climate ambition and economic growth must reinforce each other," Minerals Council senior executive: environment, health, legacies and employment relations Shamini Harrington stated in the keynote address.
Mining is an energy-intensive industry with a responsibility to manage and reduce our own emissions and build resilience to the physical impacts of climate change. "At the same time, mining produces the minerals and metals on which electrification, renewable energy, infrastructure and technological development depend. Mining therefore has a dual role - we are part of the transition ourselves, but we are also fundamental to enabling it.
That dual role matters significantly for South Africa. "Our country has significant development needs, an urgent requirement for stronger economic growth and investment, and a need for reliable and affordable energy, water and logistics. Mining remains deeply embedded in that economy. In 2025, the sector employed more than 470 000 people, contributed more than R439-billion to GDP and paid R31-billion in taxes," Harrington added.
Attendees ranging from established mining companies to junior miners as well as exploration companies, which he described as being very important owing to climate change affecting every part of the mining ecosystem.
Even though the challenges and opportunities would differ across companies and commodities, Subramoney pointed out how everyone in their day-to-day work environment was experiencing the way in which climate considerations were increasingly shaping how business was done, as well as influencing investment, competitiveness and market access,.
"But we must also recognise that it is also opening opportunities in new technologies, minerals, and green value chains. For South African mining in particular, this discussion on climate change comes at a time when we urgently need investment and growth in the sector to arrest some of the performance declines we've been seeing over the past few years, to strengthen our existing operations and to unlock new opportunities.
"It's because of this," – and Mining Weekly as an attendee heard this theme echoed quite strongly throughout event – "that we believe that climate action and growth need to reinforce each other, because a growing investable mining industry is much more better able to decarbonise, to build resilience, and to innovate," Subramoney explained.
"While credible climate action increasingly matters to competitiveness and market access, it's also important to note that mining sits on both sides of the transition.
"We, as a sector, need to continue reducing our emissions and strengthening the resilience of our operations as well as our host communities – and we need to do this while supplying the minerals and metals that the world needs to enable the transition and we also need to acknowledge the continued role of coal in energy security and in driving industrial activity in South Africa."
The Minerals Council's formal launch of 2026 Climate Change Position forcefully reaffirmed its commitment to move into implementation
Climate considerations are increasingly shaping how business is done, Minerals Council South Africa senior climate specialist Shalendra Subramoney said on Friday, October 30, in launching the council's inaugural Climate Change Day of Learning, attended by public and private sector climate mitigation representatives.
"Mining is central to both South Africa's development and the global climate transition. We need to reduce emissions and strengthen resilience while attracting the investment needed to grow a competitive mining sector, sustain and create jobs, support communities, and bolster South Africa's economic development. Climate ambition and economic growth must reinforce each other," Minerals Council senior executive: environment, health, legacies and employment relations Shamini Harrington stated in the keynote address.
Mining is an energy-intensive industry with a responsibility to manage and reduce our own emissions and build resilience to the physical impacts of climate change. "At the same time, mining produces the minerals and metals on which electrification, renewable energy, infrastructure and technological development depend. Mining therefore has a dual role - we are part of the transition ourselves, but we are also fundamental to enabling it.
That dual role matters significantly for South Africa. "Our country has significant development needs, an urgent requirement for stronger economic growth and investment, and a need for reliable and affordable energy, water and logistics. Mining remains deeply embedded in that economy. In 2025, the sector employed more than 470 000 people, contributed more than R439-billion to GDP and paid R31-billion in taxes," Harrington added.
Attendees ranging from established mining companies to junior miners as well as exploration companies, which he described as being very important owing to climate change affecting every part of the mining ecosystem.
Even though the challenges and opportunities would differ across companies and commodities, Subramoney pointed out how everyone in their day-to-day work environment was experiencing the way in which climate considerations were increasingly shaping how business was done, as well as influencing investment, competitiveness and market access,.
"But we must also recognise that it is also opening opportunities in new technologies, minerals, and green value chains. For South African mining in particular, this discussion on climate change comes at a time when we urgently need investment and growth in the sector to arrest some of the performance declines we've been seeing over the past few years, to strengthen our existing operations and to unlock new opportunities.
"It's because of this," – and Mining Weekly as an attendee heard this theme echoed quite strongly throughout event – "that we believe that climate action and growth need to reinforce each other, because a growing investable mining industry is much more better able to decarbonise, to build resilience, and to innovate," Subramoney explained.
"While credible climate action increasingly matters to competitiveness and market access, it's also important to note that mining sits on both sides of the transition.
"We, as a sector, need to continue reducing our emissions and strengthening the resilience of our operations as well as our host communities – and we need to do this while supplying the minerals and metals that the world needs to enable the transition and we also need to acknowledge the continued role of coal in energy security and in driving industrial activity in South Africa."
The Minerals Council's formal launch of 2026 Climate Change Position forcefully reaffirmed its commitment to move into implementation