ESG: Key takeaways from the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba – 2022

Environment, sustainability and governance (ESG) is a key focus area for our firm and we believe it’s about creating a tangible, practical plan that achieves real results. Success is not only about ticking boxes on climate change, diversity and disclosures alone. It’s about embedding these principles across businesses right from investment to sustainable innovation.

We sent a team of lawyers to the Africa Mining Indaba, held in Cape Town from 9-12 May. Our team attended various panel discussions on this topic where a number of pertinent themes and insights emerged. A few key takeaways have been summarised below:

1. The Just Energy Transition is not just about carbon reduction – it requires an integrated approach and a focus on water, biodiversity and communities. 
2. Collaboration with society and managing shareholder and community expectations is crucial to addressing sustainability and ensuring systemic change.
3. Government needs to play its role in ESG and not expect companies to take over its obligations – government has an important  role in developing policy /frameworks and addressing gaps in transparency and accountability. 
4. Mining companies need to understand the local context – the G in ESG also refers to ‘cultural governance‘
5. There is a strong business case to the ensure the ‘S’ gains the same focus as the ‘E’ and the ‘G’ in mining – open dialogue and ‘uncomfortable conservations’ are key. 
6. Recognition of ‘shareholder investment’ and ‘stakeholder interest’ – stakeholder interests need to align with business strategy into a single holistic strategy.  

Our lawyers advise clients across all sectors on ESG risks and compliance measures, helping businesses manage their risks more effectively while becoming more competitive in the market. We have extensive knowledge of sustainable performance-related laws and regulations, standards and initiatives and are able to advise clients on fulfilling their corporate ESG commitments. For more information, please visit our ESG page on the website here.