Mining: Pollution

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Baroness Chapman of Darlington) (Lab)]

My Lords, I start by saying how grateful I am to the noble Lord, Lord Oates, for his speech. I was moved by what he had to say and the accounts he shared with us. They really brought to life the issues that we are turning our attention to, which too often can seem very distant and abstract. I was affected a great deal by what the noble Lord said about mothers and the children they are caring for, and the impact this is having on their health, possibly for the rest of their lives. I appreciate the way that he talked about that. I also thank him for his leadership and tenacity on this over some time, and I extend that compliment to my noble friend Lord Hain; I know that they have worked together on this over probably many years.

The noble Lord, Lord Oates, started with a plea that the episode at Kabwe should serve as a lesson. I hear that. Some clear lessons can be learned, and they should instruct our approach to extractive industries in the future. There is no doubt, from what I have learned, that extractive industries are here to stay and that we will not be able to decarbonise without them, so it is vital that, in future, mining is always done responsibly, to the highest standards, and that those standards are required internationally. The UK is working to make sure that those standards can be agreed, implemented and enforced. That is not straightforward, as was reflected in some of your Lordships’ speeches, but it is certainly the intention of the United Kingdom.

The noble Lord, Lord Oates, asked specifically what the UK Government are doing. I can assure him that I have been in touch with the British high commissioner in Pretoria, who is following the legal case that is still taking place, which my noble friend Lord Hain also referred to. It is being followed carefully and closely, and the high commissioner in Pretoria is in close contact with everybody he needs to be about that. I will get back in touch with him following this debate to get an up-to-date assessment of where that is and what we can expect to see.

My noble friend Lord Hain asked me about the FCDO’s partnership. The partnership is with the Anglo American Foundation, so it is separate from the corporation. We always do due diligence ahead of these things. He asked us to make sure that social justice and human rights are fundamental to our approach, and I assure him that they are. Anglo American is an important company. It is difficult to see how mining can continue globally to the extent needed without Anglo American, but what really matters is that we confront the legacies of the past and appropriate steps are taken in that regard, and that, moving forward, mining is done responsibly so that we never again see the kind of impact on a community that we have seen.

The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich spoke about the pension investments and invited me to meet to discuss legacy issues with trustees there. I am very happy to do that. I thank the Church of England Pensions Board for its participation in the emerging markets and developing economies taskforce, where we work with big investors in the City to try to encourage them to invest more in developing economies. In a moment, I will get on to the points put to me by the noble Lord, Lord Bruce, around development assistance more generally, but part of our more modern approach is that we need to work with the City and public markets, where the many trillions of dollars are held that we need to get flowing into those developing economies. In the end, that is how development will happen on a sustainable basis. As the noble Lord, Lord Bruce, said, our approach to overseas assistance has developed—not that there was anything wrong with what was happening before; it is just that we will be doing things differently. The Church of England is a full participant in that, and I am grateful for it and happy to have the meetings that he suggested.

The noble Lord, Lord Bruce, is a lovely man, who I respect very much. He has done a huge amount for international development through the years and has forgotten more than I will probably ever know. He has heard me say this several times before, but perhaps this is an opportunity to persuade him a little that what we are doing in our approach to development has some merit. I point out that the size of African economies combined is $2.8 trillion and the amount of development assistance in Africa at peak ODA was around $70 billion, so about 2.5% of the money in Africa has come from development assistance. This is the scale of the challenge that we have an ambition to meet in Africa. It is vital that we meet it, because turning away and leaving conditions to deteriorate as they have—I know that the Sahel is a particular concern for many Members of this House—makes the whole world less secure. We see problems with extremism and antimicrobial resistance, as has been mentioned. Health is a good example of intervention from the UK, not just through development assistance but through technical expertise and work to promote health security. The Ebola and mpox outbreaks were dealt with quickly and effectively, and we did not see the more widespread infection that we might have done because of the work that we were able to do, alongside partners in-country, to support communities and countries to handle them in the right way.

The noble Lord asked how we are working to promote trade. We have some practical initiatives to promote trade in Africa. Previous approaches have been good—this is not a criticism at all, it is just that we have to continue to refresh and evolve our approach—but what will make the biggest difference is allowing countries to trade with one another, and then, when they want to, to trade with us freely as well. Our developing countries trading scheme removes rules of origin requirements on countries, for example, so they can trade with us without having to prove where every last component came from, if they came from developing countries. That encourages more trade with Africa.

We are working closely through the BII, UKEF and the World Bank on how we improve African infrastructure. That is how they will be able to facilitate more of that trade, grow their economies, and become self-sufficient and less dependent on aid, which is what they tell us they want. This is how they want us to work. The reason we had such a strong World Bank IDA pledge this year is that we know that, by working that way, we get far more money into developing economies than we have ever been able to do through bilateral aid programmes, which in some cases have fostered dependency and undermined the ability of countries to lead their own processes and strengthen their own systems. They want to educate their own children and devise their own healthcare, appropriate to them, and that is what we want to support them in doing.

Where bilateral aid is the best way in which to do that, we will continue to do it, and we will continue to be leaders in humanitarian support. More often now, it is about investment and support for building systems, and enabling countries such as Ghana, Rwanda and Ethiopia, by supporting them in growing their own tax base so that they can get every year more than they have ever had in ODA to spend on their own public services. That is what they say they want and that is how we are going to work with them. We had a good launch of our new Africa approach—I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Collins, for the work that he did to bring that about. It is all about moving more towards partnership and away from some of the paternalistic approaches of the past.

To return to the main subject of the debate this afternoon, it is right to say that we have seen the enduring scars that have been left by damaging mining practices around the world. Sympathy is not a sufficient word, but we have complete respect for and a desire to work to support those who have been affected. The Government are determined to ensure that future mining does not repeat those mistakes and that we embed responsible and sustainable practices that put local communities at their heart.

I was able to visit Anglo American when I was in Chile last year. I think the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, mentioned that, in many countries in Latin America and Africa, too often there have been situations where local communities have not been prioritised in any way—I come from the north-east; mining is part of my region, and to this day I see the scars that can be left. The mine was operated from an office block in central Santiago. Men who had worked underground at the face of the mine for years were now working in an office building close to their homes, so they did not have to travel and be away from their families for days or weeks on end and they could work safely using high-tech equipment. It was clear that that is something of the future of mining, and it is the kind of approach that we are going to see more often.

There is a big leap to be taken from the practices that we still too often see to that new, modern and safe approach, but that is what the UK is working to achieve. Governance is essential to this. From my perspective as a Development Minister, this is about ensuring that mineral wealth can translate into long-term development gains, rather than environmental degradation, corruption or, too often, conflict.

We know that critical mineral reserves in the developing world can support inclusive and sustainable economic development, but that must be done under the right conditions. We are going to work alongside our partners so that mining and mineral processing are carried out to high environmental, social and government standards. Very often, we see the extraction take place in a country, but the processing—the piece of the process where the biggest value is added—takes place somewhere else. We need to look at that and make sure that the countries that hold mineral wealth can get the benefit of it.

This is all part of the Government’s commitment to supporting UK business in pursuit of economic growth. We want British companies to be successful, but we expect them to follow relevant law and align with appropriate international standards. Under the Companies Act 2006, all directors in the UK are required to consider the impact of operations, including on the community and environment, when they make decisions. Since 2019, large companies are required to disclose in their annual reports how they have done that. In addition, quoted companies and large public interest entities are required to report on social matters in respect of human rights as part of their annual reports and accounts.

Responsibility is central to the UK’s international approach to critical minerals. We are using our multilateral and bilateral agreements to promote high standards globally. In addition, we are reviewing our approach to responsible business conduct policy, focusing on the global supply chains of businesses operating in the UK.

We advocate for binding frameworks and voluntary standards. That includes the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, OECD standards, and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, which we helped to establish. These encourage companies to avoid, mitigate and remediate environmental and social impacts in areas at high risk and affected by conflict.

We support transparency and good governance. The UK co-founded the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and funds the Natural Resource Governance Institute to help countries manage mining revenues responsibly. Through our global initiatives, we help countries to ensure that the mining of metals and minerals, particularly in tropical forest regions, is carried out responsibly. This is how we minimise harm to nature, as well as harm to indigenous peoples and local communities, which is most relevant to this debate. It is their forests and their home, and they are the people who preserve these precious global assets on the world’s behalf.

The UK works alongside countries on everything from investigations to scholarships to satellite technology, and we must continue to do so. Some 30% of known global critical mineral deposits are in Africa, and this is at the heart of the UK’s new approach to the continent, which is ongoing dialogue and partnership built on fairness and respect. We are focused on making progress on many priorities, from security to education, health and the growth and opportunity that people everywhere want.

All this is part of our commitment to tackling the climate and nature crisis in a socially just and responsible way, leading by example wherever we can. This includes our 2035 nationally determined contributions target to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% on 1990 levels. We are cutting emissions faster than any other country in the G7 while growing our economy.

The world has seen too often what can go devastatingly wrong when Governments do not take a lead and when they step back. We are improving the international approach to mining and, again, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Oates, for his moving introduction, which reminds us why this matters so much, not just on an environmental and industrial level but, at the end of the day, for people trying to live their lives with dignity and securing the health of their children. I am very grateful to him for what he said at the beginning of this debate.