Case study: Unearth Justice
FairPensions and international aid charity CAFOD joined forces in 2008, campaigning for investors to intervene in irresponsible mining companies that were uprooting communities and causing environmental devastation in places like Honduras, the Philippines and the Congo.
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Download CAFOD's Unearth Justice briefing. |
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The boom in commodity prices in early 2008 saw investors rush to buy shares in the extractive sector (including mining companies). The price boom meant that mining companies were able to initiate projects in areas previously thought uneconomical because they were too remote, too dangerous or too politically unstable. |
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CAFOD found that many of these mining companies were not carrying out adequate risk assessments of the potential loss-making problems associated with expanding into these areas, including the risks of conflict, community opposition or reputational risk for the company. Irresponsible mining projects that disregard human rights and environmental factors are more likely to be disrupted or shut down, and thus represented a clear financial risk to pension funds. |
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FairPensions and CAFOD sent briefings to over 400 institutional investors worth trillions of pounds, and hundreds of people contacted their pension funds to demand they take action on irresponsible mining companies. This successfully put the issue on the agenda for individual pension funds and investor coalitions including the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF).