At the Conference for Nature at Westminster yesterday, the Chief Executive of the Mineral Products Association made some bold statements; they bear repeating here:
MPA totally supports the aim of protecting and enhancing the state of nature and biodiversity delivery across the UK and EU and we will play our part where we can. Our industry is uniquely placed to make a difference, more than any other. Our industry operators are practitioners working in the environment, with the environment, and mainly for the environment.
Powerful words: "with the environment"? "mainly for the environment”? The MPA is a UK trade body representing the interests of international cement conglomerates, so let's not forget that the cement industry pumps out 5-7% of global man-made CO2 emissions - as well as a variety of heavy metals, particularly mercury. Never mind the impact that quarrying itself has on the environment.
Furthermore, and how's this for business babble:
Supporting biodiversity is a key aim for us: it is a key part of our license to operate. It also makes good business sense to restore sites to high quality and help deliver national and local environmental priorities and biodiversity targets. We can demonstrate the overall gains in environmental quality as result of our operations, and community support of, and use of, our sites.
Restoring sites? There are people, both in Devon and elsewhere, who will question those words - with a historical and seemingly never-ending legacy of quarry sites used for brownfield development.
"Where next?" he says:
We will build and validate the database, we will evaluate the asset better, we will capitalise on offsetting and ecosystem services, we will write the story better, we will tell the story better. Our aim is to see the industry shake off historic and false perceptions and become recognised as a very significant national biodiversity asset.
"Write the story better"? "Tell the story better"? People next to mineral sites and cement works will just want the industry to "do the story better".
