SUSTAINABILITY 
Energy and Emissions
Mining and processing of gold is an energy intensive process. This is exacerbated by changing ore geology, declining grades, longer hauling distances and increasing mine depths requiring additional cooling and ventilation infrastructure. The high energy intensity of mining, due to electricity requirements and the use of diesel in vehicles, is one of the major contributors to the industry's high carbon emissions.
Adapting to and mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change is critical for us, given the disruptive nature of the climate-related risks across our operations and supply chains. The management of energy use and spend is also vital given our exposure to external energy price volatilities. Managing energy use enables us to reduce our carbon footprint, thereby playing our role in tackling the crippling effects of climate change.
Energy and carbon management is one of the key levers in transitioning to a low-carbon future. As part of our integrated climate change governance, we have established an executive steering committee responsible to oversee our comprehensive climate change response, of which our decarbonisation strategy forms a significant part. Alignment to international best practice, such as the recently revised ICMM Position Statement on Climate Change and our ISO 50001 certification process for our mines by 2023, are significant enablers towards implementing our decarbonisation strategy.
As we mine deeper and further, energy demand also rises. In our quest for energy security, we assess feasibility for low carbon and renewable energy sources, particularly gas, solar and wind. These energy sources enable us to meet multiple objectives: securing supply, reducing carbon emissions and optimising energy costs.
To date, Gold Fields has established a Scope 1 and 2 net carbon emission reduction target of 30% by 2030 (from a 2016 baseline and based on a planned 2.8Moz a year gold production profile by 2030). The company's ultimate target is to achieve net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 or sooner. The key components of the decarbonisation strategy comprise increasing reliance on renewable energy, electrification of material movement, such as haulage and conveyance, and diesel replacement and energy efficiency.
As a member of the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM), Gold Fields is also committed to setting a Scope 3 emissions reduction target by 2023. Until then we will develop a Scope 3 emissions baseline assessment, set a Scope 3 emission reduction target and develop a comprehensive strategy to achieve this.
We conduct five-yearly climate change vulnerability and risk assessments at our mines to understand the risks, develop and implement mitigation actions and review control adequacies. This extends to communities impacted by our operations. A second round of these assessments was conducted during 2021 and the results published in our 2021 Climate Change Report.
Our approach to managing energy consumption, energy costs and building climate change resilience is informed by relevant regulations, external standards, guidelines and codes, our internal policies, guidelines and commitments as well as policies set by global and national mining organisations we belong to. Many of these organisations provide standards against which the effectiveness of our programmes and initiatives are benchmarked.
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Climate change affects the availability of natural resources, with availability and infrastructure of water and energy most affected, owing to:
During 2017, the Board adopted an updated Group Climate Change Policy (which was updated in 2020), which advances and communicates a balanced mitigation and adaptation approach to achieving our climate change objectives. The policy can be found at https://www.goldfields.com/pdf/about-us/corporate-governance/policies/2022/climate-change-policy.pdf .
Gold Fields formally started on its climate change, energy and water journey in 2016, but has reported on its climate change performance since 2010, when we first made an annual submission to the CDP. In 2018, Gold Fields became the second JSE-listed company to publicly back the United Nations-endorsed recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). We have since released an annual Climate Change Report in line with these recommendations. The latest (2021) report is available at https://www.goldfields.com/pdf/investors/integrated-annual-reports/2021/gold-fields-tcfd-report-2021-updated.pdf.
