Donwald Pressly
Gold Fields is top of the pops of a new index that tracks the environmental reporting of the 300 biggest companies in the Brics bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which has been released ahead of this month’s 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
South Africa is well in the lead, followed by Brazil, as regards the regional emissions reporting and verification by private sector companies in the Brics countries.
In the Brics 300 ET (environmental tracking) index Gold Fields tops Brazilian bank Santander Brazil, followed by Brazilian mining firm Vale.
The biggest polluter is Sasol, although it scores a fairly high 17th place on the index.
The South African oil-from-coal company emits 74 976 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) for every $1 million (R7.8m) in turnover.
The second-worst polluter is Brazilian oil company Petrobras, with emissions of 62 840tCO2e.
Sam Gill, the director of the Environmental Investment Organisation (EIO), explained that the index was not only based on emissions, but the most recent update also placed emphasis on the openness of reporting on the emissions and on independent verification of a company’s figures. This explained the relatively high ranking of Sasol.
Pressed on how Gold Fields and other companies that had done well in the index would benefit, he said the intention was to encourage investment flows to “green-friendly” companies.
Michael Gill, the EIO’s strategic director, said a key aim ultimately was to establish green indices on the stock exchanges of countries around the world. The ET UK 100 and ET Europe 300 indices were established earlier this year.
ET indices were aimed at taking companies found in a normal index and reweighting them, either positively or negatively, according to their carbon emissions ranking.
Altogether 39 South African companies make it into the Brics 300.
The next best local company in the Brics 300 index is Woolworths at sixth place with emissions of 20 917.73tCO2e.
Standard Bank, with emissions at 203 929tCO2e, is in 11th spot and the Absa Group, at 415 000tCO2e, is in 18th spot. Near the bottom is Remgro at 281tCO2e. It provided no data for emissions.