Froneman pickles/ This is great news if you read it.Like I said ESG Funds, he is up against it , with the fund managers that invest in SS. Political protest , the workers want more money, the government wants more money and big investors global investors are tired of all the unrest, and will move their money too better opportunities, and cleaner projects.!
Because African Power Generation is 80% COAL.!!!
he says."If you can't get your carbon exposures down, end users will not buy your product."Minerals and energy minister Gwede Mantashe has again rejected appeals by business to raise the threshold for embedded generation from 10MW to 50MW.Sibanye has a 50MW project it wants to get off the ground but hasn't been able to get regulatory approval, and a 250MW project waiting for approval in the Rustenburg area.
World carbon neutrality targets have been set for 2040 but Sibanye is coming under "immense pressure" from its investors and stakeholders to meet these targets by 2030, which it has committed to do.Mantashe is making this "very difficult".Businesses are going to have to discard their high-carbon operations, says Froneman. Some of Sibanye's, such as its ultra-deep gold mines, will come to an end in 10 years' time."You'll have to grow your business being very cognisant of buying low-emission projects. The value of projects is going to change based on their environmental profile, and we will be left with unmined resources because they can't be mined in a carbon-responsible way." SA shouldn't assume that because it is the biggest producer of the PGM products needed for the transition to clean energy the world won't be able to afford not to buy them."If you want to see demand destruction, just put that threat in front of an end user," says Froneman. "Their conscience and ethics will drive them to develop alternative technologies and we will constantly lose out."The world will just move to a different place. We're completely dispensable if that's what is needed."Froneman has been in round-the-clock virtual meetings with international investors who, in addition to concerns about the industry's ability to meet carbon neutrality targets, cite the breakdown of local government as a major deterrent to investment."Investors see the conditions under which companies like ours have to operate, which take away our competitiveness, such as having to deal with a lack of service delivery."We spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to fix up the mess we find in local government, that could be spent on creating value."We're having to deal with community issues based on a lack of service delivery that is not our responsibility, all of which leads to us being uncompetitive."And we're competing on the world stage, we don't just compete in South Africa. Which is why you have to acknowledge what investors are saying."Escalating community protests are becoming increasingly disruptive for business."The plight of municipalities and lack of service delivery is only getting worse, so social unrest is increasing."We identified anarchy as a risk a good many years ago and we're now seeing it all over," he says.His message to investors is that "we back ourselves to prosper in this environment, as difficult as it is. We've demonstrated that."We tell them that we continue to engage with government to try to get changes, and about our in-house initiatives to deal with these problems."But it's a hard sell, he admits."It doesn't result in a lot of new foreign direct investment in South Africa."In spite of the commodities boom, foreign investors are looking to other jurisdictions.
I actually think Froneman may have too buy us out completely so as too put a greener face on the name of his company. More ESG friendly , as we get our power or Ontario gets its power generation from NUCLEAR.