Plenary speakers

- Title and abstract

How can academics support corporate value chain sustainability?

Corporations are increasingly powerful and globally interconnected. They can play an instrumental role for ensuring that irreversible climatological or ecological tipping points on Earth is not crossed. Their impacts range from pollution of soils, freshwater and the ocean, depletion of ecosystems and species, unsustainable use of resources, changes to air quality, and alteration of the global climate. Negative social impacts include unacceptable working conditions, erosion of traditional practices, and increased inequalities. Although regulations and financial systems are increasingly promoting corporate sustainability – in various forms, there is a role for science and scientists to engage directly with such actors, to accelerate change and facilitate corporate biosphere stewardship. This talk will investigate some roles that scientists can take, some of the risks that such roles may result in, and describe personal experiences of hope and despair, when working with corporations. The biosphere crisis underscores that efforts to date have been insufficient and that transformative change is urgently needed. Corporate biosphere stewardship, if guided by science and regulated by governments, has the potential to rapidly accelerate progress towards the sustainable development goals.

- Abstract

Critical Minerals, The Energy Transition and Responsible Mining:
The Sustainable Nexus?

The world is changing rapidly and working hard towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions, shifting to electrified transport, the inexorable rise of digital transformation and all whilst trying to do everything better and more sustainably. This growing technological (and policy) sophistication requires an ever-increasing array and amounts of minerals never used much to date by the world - rare earth elements, tellurium, scandium, gallium, germanium, lithium, graphite and others. Yet these are typically small volume commodities controlled by a few countries, with concerns about supply concentration and/or political stability causing these suites of minerals to be labelled as 'critical' for societal objectives. The field of industrial ecology has for a long time explored various ways to quantify the environmental impacts of mining and products, but how do we go further and link this to corporate and civic governance? consumption? corporate policy? This presentation will explore the current state of play for critical minerals globally, provide some key case studies (e.g., platinum group elements, rare earth elements, antimony) and then explore what it means to produce such minerals using modern responsible frameworks. Given the global nature of sustainable development challenges and especially the globalised nature of mineral resources and mining, it is clear that we need global co-operation to achieve common goals such as climate action, the energy transition and digital transformation (without losing focus on fundamentals such as living standards, construction, manufacturing, etc). There is room for optimism that we can solve the challenges and achieve our goals.

- Abstract

Mineral In the Nexus of Food and Energy

Food security is of paramount importance for humans to lead a productive life and essential for society to function. In January 2024, the world's population reached 8.2 billion which is projected by the United Nations to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, and this growth along with the dietary changes will inevitably lead to increased demand for food. It is evident that the provision of raw materials is essential for the sustenance of this expanding population. This is particularly true given the current challenges to feed the existing global population of 8 billion, let alone the projected growth in the future, without the application of industrial fertilizers. About half of today's crop yields can be directly attributed to the use of modern mineral fertilizers, mostly based on the elements -- phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium. Nitrogen is abundantly available in air and there is unlimited supply of potassium in sea water. On the other hand, phosphorus is In September 2015, the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) at its core. Two SDG are particularly relevant here: SDG 2 is entitled "Zero hunger (achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture)". SDG 12 is entitled "Responsible consumption and production (ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns)". To meet SDG 12, the challenge to produce fertilizers under sustainability guidelines, the process from mining to processing and use must be carried out in a way that is as safe as possible for the environment, beneficial for the social structure of mining communities, regions, and countries, while aiming at optimizing resource efficiency with a target of circular economy.

Africa is a special case with nearly a billion people and growing at the rate of ~ 2.7 %/year will have a quarter of world population by 2050 particularly who are young. Food production is lagging population growth and in 2024 Africa’s food import bill will exceed 60 billion that is projected to reach more than 90 billion in 2025 at the current prices. Fertilizer application rate is low in spite abundant and many deposits of phosphorus with Morocco having the largest reserves. Agriculture in Africa is based on extensification than intensification that is prevalent in other parts of the world.

Energy is essential in mining of minerals and all activities related to agriculture and fossil fuel (natural gas, petroleum, and coal) continues to be the primary source. With the current climate imperative and drive towards circular economy renewable energies from solar, wind, hydroelectric etc. gaining in importance. The production of renewables energies from these sources is dependent on minerals such as lithium, phosphorus, cobalt, chromium etc.

My presentation will delve into the importance of minerals in the food and energy nexus as the world moves to adopt the circular economy paradigm

- Abstract

Sustainability Initiatives in the Mining Industry (Non-Ferrous Metals Industry)

DOWA Holdings is mainly engaged in the non-ferrous metal resources business. The target non-ferrous metals range from copper, lead, and zinc, which are called base metals, to precious metals and rare metals. These metals are indispensable to industry and also called "essential metals".

In the past, the non-ferrous metal industry brought about modernization, such as the introduction of hydroelectric power generation in the 19th century, but at the same time, it also caused the problem of environmental pollution and has been working to solve it. Now, once again, we are facing a new challenge of sustainability and working to solve it.

Currently, most of the domestic mines were shut down, and many smelters are looking for their raw materials overseas and from recycling. For Japan, which depends on overseas resources, securing resources has been originally a national strategy, and in recent years there is an international trend to intervene in policies by designating metal resources essential for GX/DX (Green/Digital Transformation) as critical metals.

In addition, the importance of recycling is increasing not only from the perspective of pollution prevention and natural resource conservation, but also from the perspective of resource efficiency (RE) and circular economy (CE), and the role of the nonferrous metal industry in the recycling of essential metals is more and more increasing, as various policies have been introduced.

In addition, responsible minerals sourcing (RMAP), which originated from the elimination of conflict minerals, is becoming required to resource suppliers to ensure information disclosure, compliance, and traceability through the implementation of DD (Due diligence) due to ESG (Environmental/Social/Governance) requirements from the supply chain and new policies.

Another major trend is the response to climate change and efforts to create a low-carbon society. Japan has also declared its carbon neutrality (CN) by 2050 internationally, and the industrial world has begun to work toward it. The Japan Mining Association (JMIA), to which the nonferrous metals industry belongs, has also established a "Carbon Neutrality Action Plan" and is developing industry-wide activities to achieve the 2030 target set. This activity includes the preparation of manuals for the calculation of CFP (Carbon Foot Print) for non-ferrous metals. In addition, each company belonging to the association is independently working to certify and market sustainable metals.

The nonferrous metals industry will continue to make efforts to meet new ESG requirements and ensure a stable supply of resources that can meet sustainability requirements.