THE Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CoMP) adopted a climate change protocol put forward by the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) organization, while harmonizing its standards for managing mine tailings with global norms.
“This development was approved by the TSM community of interest (CoI) advisory panel following the recommendation of CoMP’s technical working group (TWG) that was tasked to align TSM with the global industry standard on tailings management,” CoMP said in a statement Tuesday.
The CoMP said TSM is a globally recognized sustainability program established in 2004 by the Mining Association of Canada that guides mining companies in managing key environmental and social risks. The global industry standard was issued in 2020 to operators of tailings facilities, aiding them in achieving zero harm to communities and the environment.
“The adoption of the climate change protocol will not only support the alignment with the standard of CoMP members with tailings facilities. It will also support the alignment of our nickel producers with other environmental, social, and governance standards, such as responsible steel,” CoMP Chairman Gerard H. Brimo said.
The chamber said the adoption of the protocol adds to the list of measurement tools that its members can use to grade their environmental and social responsibility obligations.
CoI panel member Carlos Primo C. David said the protocol is important because of the outsized impact of climate change on tropical island nations such as the Philippines.
“The efforts must remain strong for reforestation efforts and carbon footprint reduction, but the impact of climate change warrants ensuring business continuity and, more importantly, resilience in our communities in the near future,” Mr. David said.
“This climate change protocol and its supporting guide will provide mining companies the required focus to attend to local impacts and, through this, enable them to contribute to the global effort to address climate change,” he added.
Mr. Brimo said the climate change guide is the only mine-related reference that offers procedures for incorporating climate change considerations in the miner; operational decision-making.
Other TSM Protocols include water stewardship, preventing child and forced labor, biodiversity conservation management, health and safety, indigenous peoples and community outreach, and crisis management.
TSM partner countries are Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Norway, the Philippines, and Spain. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
