THE British colonial legacy of pollution from mines was raised within the House of Lords earlier this month; and this was, the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, said, “timely, due to the geopolitical tensions that we face currently, a lot of them connected to minerals needed to power our economies today”.
Bishop Usher is the Church of England’s lead bishop for the environment and lead bishop for biodiversity within the Anglican Communion.
“The role of mining has been a specific focus lately” for the Church of England Pensions Board, which, he said, “recognises the systemic importance of mining to most of the other sectors upon which modern life depends and which the board can also be invested in. . . But a specific focus of [its] work has been on this issue of legacy, particularly related to mine waste.
“The Pensions Board has led a worldwide initiative with the support of each the UN and the mining industry to drive safety in tailings waste management by firms today,” he said. In addition, “the Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030, which was arrange and is chaired by the Church of England’s Pensions Board, and backed by 100 investors with over $17 trillion under management . . . , laid out at the top of last 12 months a set of recommendations on legacy.
“Investors have clearly indicated their expectation that the industry must address existing legacies while ensuring that recent and operating sites create lasting value for people and nature.”
He asked whether the Minister would “be willing to satisfy staff of the Church of England Pensions Board” for further insight.
Introducing the controversy, Lord Oates (Liberal Democrat) referred to a mine in Zambia, which, between 1925 and 1974, had been owned by Anglo American South Africa Ltd, with the UK as its legal authority. “Widespread and severe lead poisoning and the deaths of several children within the villages near the Kabwe mine” had been the result, he said.
On its closure, in 1994, Lord Oates said, “an estimated 6.4 million tonnes of lead-bearing waste piles, leaching lead into the soil and water”, had been left behind. He asked: “What assessment have the UK Government product of their moral responsibility . . . to scrub up the toxic legacy left behind by one in all its own group firms?”
A former leader of the Green Party, Baroness Bennett, said that it was “not only one company. We are talking a few systemic problem with an industry with a terrible track record.”
Responding for the Government, Baroness Chapman said that she can be “very pleased” to satisfy the Pensions Board, and thanked the board for “its participation within the emerging markets and developing economies task force, where we work with big investors within the City to attempt to encourage them to take a position more in developing economies”.
