02/05/2025
The Church of England Pensions Board on Wednesday 30 April 2025 attended and spoke as a shareholder at the AGM of Anglo American in London. The intervention and the company’s response continues to build upon the extensive dialogue and engagement the Board has had with Anglo over many years. Anglo represents a strategically important shareholding in a critical sector for the global climate transition.
At the AGM, the Pensions Board welcomed Anglo’s rejection of an attempted takeover last year and stated that the wider mining sector was better served with the company continuing in its own right. The Pensions Board then focussed on the need for greater transparency on Anglo American’s impact on nature and biodiversity, which received a positive response from the company’s Chair, Stuart Chambers.
"The board's commitment to enhancing transparency and disclosure around their nature impacts and dependencies is very encouraging,” said Sara Taaffe, Responsible Investment Analyst for the Environment at the Church of England Pensions Board. “By clearly linking their impacts and dependencies on ecosystem services, like water, to their sustainability implementation strategies and targets, they give confidence to investors like us that material sustainability concerns are being effectively addressed. We look forward to the release of sustainability disclosures and strategies as the company reshapes the business for the long term."
The Church of England Pensions Board continues to engage with Anglo American over several initiatives, including Nature Action 100, Climate Action 100, and the Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030. It has also publicly backed the Anglo American board and encouraged it to resist attempted takeovers.
The full statement from the AGM was as follows:
As a shareholder of Anglo American, we have engaged with the company through initiatives such as Climate Action 100, Nature Action 100, Anglo’s participation in the Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030, and in shaping the industry response to the risk posed by tailings dams following the Brumadinho disaster in 2019. In each case we have appreciated the collaborative and constructive approach that the company’s leadership has adopted.
I would also like to acknowledge the continued commitment of the Board and management team to be a leader in sustainability as the company reshapes the business for the long term. The Church of England strongly supported the Board’s determination to resist attempted takeovers and believe the industry and market in general are better served by a strong Anglo American. We are pleased we are here today.
Turning to the issue of nature – we strongly welcome your commitment to align disclosures with TNFD recommendations in the 2025 reporting cycle.
However, your investors would benefit from greater clarity on the extent of Anglo American’s impacts and dependencies on nature, and how much these are addressed through your targets on biodiversity, water, and GHG emissions. For example, in your recent Sustainability Report, you note that by using the World Resource Institute’s (WRI) Aqueduct tool, you determined that 83% of your operating sites are in water-scarce or water-stressed regions. However, it’s not clear whether reducing withdrawal of freshwaters by 50% in water scarce areas, against a 2015 baseline, is sufficient to mitigate the risk associated with resource dependency. By explicitly linking how location-specific risks, such as water scarcity, are being mitigated through your targets and implementation strategies, we can better understand and support your efforts.
Could the board commit to providing more detailed disclosures on the organisation's nature impacts and dependencies, and explicitly outline how your targets and implementation strategies are effectively addressing these concerns, in the next reporting cycle?
Thank you for your time and attention.