In past years the extractive industry has radically progressed in productivity and energy efficiency and is still implementing new solutions aiming at further reducing the energy consumption/unit and improving carbon-intensive operations. As the world shifts to a low-carbon future, mining companies explore methods of decarbonisation in order to efficiently and effectively fulfil the continued increasing demand for resources.

This document aims to contribute to the international and European collaborative effort among all stakeholders, and to be a source of inspiration for international and national policy makers to support decisions and regulations concerning the sustainable transition of the extractive industry. The objective of the publication is to demonstrate the technology solutions that the extractive industry implements to reduce greenhouse gas footprint.

Euromines welcomes a European Green Deal and is prepared to take the necessary measures to make Europe the world's first climate neutral continent. 

The Emission Trading System is one of the most important legal pillars and support systems for the European energy intensive industries. Therefore, any amendment brought to it or any of its subsequent acts in the light of the proposed increased climate ambition for 2030 should be based on a stable, consistent, coherent, socio-economically feasible policy framework, allowing the implementation of the most efficient measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring that long-time goals and the international competitiveness of the industry are not endangered.  

Read more in the Euromines Position on Amendment of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Euromines welcomes a European Green Deal to put Europe on the right track to a sustainable future and believes that the EU climate aspiration for 2030 should carefully assess how to increase the ambition in a manner that best contributes to sustainable and inclusive growth and enhances economic competitiveness through accelerating innovation and developing Europe’s industry. It is crucial that in the transition towards becoming climate neutral, the industry maintains and even improves its competitiveness. 

In light of the above, Euromines brought additional comments to its contribution to the public consultation for the EU climate ambition for 2030 and for the design of certain climate and energy policies of the European Green Deal, as per the attached document.

Within the EU, Member States have sovereign rights over their own natural resources and responsibility for mining and quarrying lies with the Member States within a defined framework of established ownership rights and national, regional, and local regulations – in particular specific mining legislation.

The current review of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) considers inter alia to include extractive industries in the Directive. This would mean a far-reaching change of the actual situation. Mining activities (extraction and treatment (i.e. comminution and beneficiation)) have for several reasons until today not been covered by the EU legislation on industrial emissions – neither by the IPPC-Directive nor by the present IED. Euromines rejects the inclusion of mining activities under the scope of the IED as this is not only not justified but would also not lead to an added environmental value and would moreover fail to recognise the specificities of the mining sector and the subsidiarity principle.

Aiming at identifying the gaps and needs of extractive SMEs and micro enterprises the Project on Occupational Health and Safety covered not only the traditional but also the new and emerging risks to occupational safety and health. The knowledge gathered has been used to develop training material and self-assessment tools to help employees comply with and to raise awareness for occupational health and safety legislation. 

The main deliverables promote the safe and healthy behavior and provide useful information on how to deal with the most common risks present on site. Finally, the project allowed for creating a network of collaboration among the representatives of employers and those of employees in five Member States. 

Please visit https://minesafety.eu/ to learn more about the project and the final deliverables which, we believe, will be useful for the companies in the mining sector.

Potential inclusion of additional sectors 

Euromines represents the European mineral raw materials industry covering more than 42 different metals and minerals and employing 350.000 directly and about four times as many indirectly. Its members mine metals and minerals, which will play an important role for a sustainable transition and which make EU´s economy less dependent on raw materials from third countries and thus more resilient to crises. 

Within the EU, Member States have sovereign rights over their own natural resources and responsibility for mining and quarrying lies with the Member States within a defined framework of established ownership rights and national, regional, and local regulations – in particular specific mining legislation. 

The current review of the IED considers inter alia to possibly include extractive industries in the Directive. Nevertheless, such an inclusion would fail to recognise the specificities of the mining sector, the reasons are listed in the Euromines Position Paper.