Sustainable Finance Action Plan

Euromines welcomes the Commission’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan for a greener and cleaner economy and agrees that a socio-economically efficient, sustainable and flexible financial system is essential for long-term value creation. 

The Sustainable Finance Action Plan should keep finance and investment available to all, both to those that are trailblazers and to those that need finance to modernise and upgrade towards achieving these targets, including SMEs. Euromines believes that the Sustainable Finance Action Plan should integrate the research, development and innovation potential in sustainability reporting. 

The European mining industry plays a critical role in underpinning economic growth. The development of mineral resources is a pillar for many national economies, in terms of contribution to gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, tax & royalty revenues as well as other governmental revenues. Even more, the mining industry produces more than 42 different metals and minerals and employs 350.000 people directly and about 4 times as many indirectly.

Modern extraction and processing of minerals and metals has brought huge benefits to society while reducing pressures on the environment, addressing green-house gas emissions, tackling pollution, minimising waste and improving efficiency in the use of natural resources. Even more, the mineral industry will continue to enable downstream sectors to realise all these improvements.

The raw materials contribution to the implementation of the EU Sustainable Finance Action Plan

  1. European mining-related activities are environmentally sustainable and comply with the sustainability criteria
  2. Euromines is committed to contribute substantially to climate change mitigation
  3. Euromines is committed to contribute substantially to climate change adaptation
  4. Euromines is committed to contribute to the sustainable use and protection of water
  5. Euromines is committed to contribute to the circular economy
  6. Euromines is committed to contribute to the protection of healthy ecosystems
  7. Euromines welcomes an integrated value chain market mechanism as a low-carbon economy enabler
  8. Euromines welcomes initiatives aiming at fostering transparency and providing clarity to the markets through a common understanding of sustainable investments and their environmental impacts