Modern Mining November 2021

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE

better informed if companies applied a single set of ESG reporting standards, and a similar number (73%) say it’s important to be able to compare ESG performance across companies. “In Africa and beyond, we believe organisations must integrate ESG considerations into their corporate and investment initiatives and activities, as well as internalise ESG holistically, to build trust and ensure long-term sustainability, agility and competitiveness. Stakeholders increasingly expect organisations to communicate and deliver convincing and measurable strategies on material ESG mat- ters,” says Jayne Mammatt, ESG Africa leader for PwC Africa. Renitha Dwarika, PwC Africa reporting lead, says: “The survey highlights the need for a single set of globally aligned sustainability reporting standards to improve consistency and comparability. In the absence of this, ESG investors and other stakeholders are extremely challenged in evaluating ESG matters. Companies need to focus on incorporating ESG standards, taking into account international frameworks and other benchmarks for performance while ensuring consistency and visibility of the treatment of ESG matters within the financial statements. When you tell investors and other stakeholders how you plan to reset your strategy, reimagine your reporting, reinvent your operations, and drive toward new outcomes, you build trust while creating sustainable value for the long term.” Climate is the leading ESG consideration for investors surveyed in the PwC report, with reducing Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions being the most cited (by 65%) ESG issue for companies to prioritise. What’s more, 82% of investors said it is important that ESG reporting explains the rationale for environmental commitments, along with detailed plans on how to reach them. Ensuring worker health and safety (44%) and improving workforce and executive diver- sity, equity and inclusion (37%) are other priority ESG considerations identified. According to the investors surveyed by PwC, ESG strategy starts at the top. A high percentage of investors (82%) said ESG needs to be embedded in the corporate strategy, and by a wide margin (66%) respondents said they are most confident ESG issues are being addressed if someone in the C-suite is accountable. More than half of those respondents (53%) think it should be the CEO. Litigation looms In a recent thought leadership article, Merlita Kennedy, Garyn Rapson and Tobia Serongoane of Webber Wentzel, note that ESG-related liti- gation is looming large for mining, oil and gas companies. In the near future, says the Webber Wentzel experts, companies operating in the mining, oil and gas sectors are likely to feel the brunt of the increasing prominence of ESG issues and the recalibration of societal norms towards sustainability. In South Africa, the energy sector is adapting to significant change and market turbulence. At the same time, it is in the cross- hairs of political, legislative and judicial scrutiny, as attention turns to corporate performance in the context of sustainability and climate impact. For example, in the coal sector, government faces a difficult task in managing the just transition away from Eskom’s coal-powered genera- tion, given that the country was at one point the world’s fifth-biggest coal producer, the provision of electricity to the citizens of SA is a duty of government and, in the words of the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy: “We are not a developed economy, we do not have all alternative sources”. However, notes Webber Wentzel, coal is a significant contributor

28  MODERN MINING  November 2021