NEWS

By Jonathan L. Mayuga | Business Mirror | December 7, 2021

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) announced on Tuesday the adoption of the Climate Change Protocol of the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative.

This brings to eight the number of measurement tools that COMP-members will use to grade their environmental and social performance.

This came after the TSM Community of Interest (COI) Advisory Panel following the recommendation of COMP’s technical working group (TWG) that was tasked to align TSM with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management or Standard.

“A refocusing of TSM towards climate change adaptation instead of just carbon emission mitigating strategies is an important and welcome development,” Carlos Primo David, a COI panel member and former chair of the National Panel of Technical Experts of the Climate Change Commission said in a news statement issued by COMP.

“The efforts must remain strong for reforestation efforts and carbon footprint reduction, but the impact of climate change warrants ensuring business continuity and, more importantly, resilience in our communities in the near future,” he added.

David noted the climate change impacts will be more prevalent in tropical island nations such as the Philippines, highlighting the adoption of the climate change protocol and its supporting guide that will provide mining companies the required focus to attend to local impacts and, through this, enable them to contribute to the global effort to address climate change.”

For his part, COMP Chairman Gerard Brimo said “the adoption of the Climate Change Protocol will not only support the alignment with the Standard of COMP members with tailings facilities. It will also support the alignment of our nickel producers with other ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) standards, such as Responsible Steel. Moreover, the Climate Change Guide is the only mine-related reference that provides methods or procedures on incorporating climate change considerations in the mining operator’s decision-making process.”

TSM is a globally recognized sustainability program established in 2004 by the Mining Association of Canada that supports mining companies in managing key environmental and social risks. The Standard, on the other hand, was issued in 2020 by the United Nations Environment Programme, the International Council on Mining and Metals, and the Principles for Responsible Investment to operators of tailings facilities worldwide, enjoining them to strive for zero harm to people and the environment from the earliest phases of project conception.

Apart from approving the adoption of the “Filipinized” version of the Climate Change Protocol, the COI—composed of 14 highly respected individuals from different sectors of society—likewise, approved the TWG’s recommendation to adopt the Guide on Climate Adaptation for the Mining Sector, as well as the revisions to the Tailings Management Protocol and its three supporting documents: the Guide to the Management of Tailings Facilities; Operation, Maintenance, and Surveillance Manual; and the Table of Conformance. The revisions were made to ensure that TSM is responsive to Philippine conditions.

The six other TSM Protocols—all Filipinized from the MAC version—are Water Stewardship, Preventing Child and Forced Labor, Biodiversity Conservation Management, Health & Safety, Indigenous Peoples and Community Outreach, and Crisis Management.

In addition to Canada and the Philippines, the other TSM partner countries are Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Colombia, Finland, Norway and Spain.

Source: Business Mirror