Adaptation

Comment

Publishing Date: 27 Aug 2009 11:31am GMT
Author: Mining, People and the Environment

Environmental Change Health and Safety Corporate Social Responsibility CSR Legal and Legislation Sustainability Pollution & Waste management

Climate change is making the headlines again this summer, with the message coming across loud and clear: climate change is happening; adaption is the order of the day.

A new report by the David Suzuki Foundation in Canada has found that companies are taking climate change seriously (at the operational level at least), but they are still failing to put adaption measures in place (see below).

Climate change also seems to be a key concern when it comes to the public’s perception of mining, and was one of the key issues raised in public consultation on the proposed expansion of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia (also below).

But attention is clearly turning from mitigation, which the industry is beginning to get a better grasp on (for example through measures to reduce greenhouse gas emission) to adaptation to the impending impacts of climate change.

The issue has already been raised in MEM; in our article ‘Expect the unexpected’ in the July issue. The article recommends that incorporating a detailed understanding of future local climate change at the planning stage could reduce the risk to mines later in their operational life.