Welcome to this year’s edition of our Mining Risk Review. In these unprecedented times, the mining industry finds itself beset by challenges from all sides; as COVID-19 continues to tighten its stranglehold on every corner of the world, we would just like to take a moment to wish all our readers a safe and secure remainder of 2020.
The Mining Risk Review is one of a suite of publications that we at Willis Towers Watson Global Natural Resources publishes every year that focuses on the key industry developments and risk issues faced by our clients in each of our sectors (Oil & Gas, Power & Utilities, Renewables, Mining & Metals). We hope you will find that the issues that we discuss are the ones that concern you most; we would be delighted if you wanted to follow up on any of the issues discussed in the Review. We have included the e-mail addresses of all the authors at the end of each article, so do get in touch with them to discuss their areas of expertise in more detail.
Right now, I think it’s safe to say that the global business environment is in a constant state of flux, and there is no doubt that the pandemic is the number one immediate issue for so many of us. But there is one other issue out there that will undoubtedly survive the pandemic, and that is the issue of climate change and the ensuing energy transition. I’m sure you would all agree that the mining industry is going to be significantly affected by the global drive towards net-zero emissions targets.
As part of this transition, climate change and Environmental Social Governance (ESG) pressures are likely to have significant risk implications on the mining industry of the future. Only a few months ago the Financial Times was reporting that “companies that consider environmental and social factors — and abide by good standards of corporate governance — should be better equipped to ride out a downturn and quickly get back up to speed”. In the same article, the FT also commented that “investors are also still going all in on environmental, social and governance themes — and so far their bets have paid off. If anything, the pandemic has only reinforced fund managers’ belief that ESG is worth worrying about”1.
That’s why in this Review we address some of the key risk issues arising from the energy transition from a mining industry perspective. Please read on and I’d be delighted to discuss any of your issues arising out of this publication with you at any time.
Graham Knight is Head of Global Natural Resources, Willis Towers Watson. graham.knight@willistowerswatson.com
1 Coronavirus is strengthening the hand of ESG investors” - Billy Nauman, May 15 2020 https://www.ft.com/content/19047cda-0648-48a9-a512-87653149026c
