News

A Cautionary Tale – Nickel, Lithium, Capital Markets, Operational Sustainability and Risk

In recent years, the mining sector has experienced substantial gains in metal and mineral prices, prompting many shareholders to push companies away from traditional hedging practices.

However, the landscape has shifted as global risk sentiment has increased, driven by geopolitical and macroeconomic factors.  Equity markets have faced increasing volatility with the VIX spiking again since it went into a frenzy post Covid.

Amidst the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, growing geopolitical risks on the horizon in the Middle East and the lead up to the US Presidential election, investors and central banks continue to support gold as a strategic safe-haven.

But what about critical energy transition commodities?

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AI and the Environment

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has had such a profound effect on big tech companies that their energy consumption, and with it their carbon emissions, have doubled in just the last 4 years. Read more

Cyber risks in heavy industry: perpetual motion

At a recent Mining Insurance & Risk Association conference in Vancouver, a cyber risk specialist informed a travel-weary auditorium of insurance and risk professionals on their 2nd cup of joe, that she had researched the Dark Web (basically the underground hackers hangout) and found that 28 out of 30 attendee companies had some form of exposed data available for sale or freely available for use by others.

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Climate Litigation

UN convened Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) starts to split

The United Nations convened, Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) has been eviscerated in the last month with the wholesale exodus of the (re)insurance market from its membership.

As part of its charter, NZIA members must commit to transition their insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, consistent with a maximum temperature rise of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, in order to contribute to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Part of this NZIA protocol compels member companies to meet NZIA’s “emissions reduction target” by choosing either an overarching insurance associated emissions reduction target of between 34-60% by 2030, or targeting emissions on a sector-by-sector basis in line with a net zero pathway for that sector.  Much of the language used within its requirements refers to ‘pressuring’ its ‘insureds’ in ‘dirty’ industries to fall into line.

Now only 17 insurers remain, with the founding and major member companies alike, including giants Munich RE, Swiss RE, Lloyds, Zurich, Hannover, QBE, and even Paris headquartered AXA and Scor, all vacating their association with the NZIA.

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