PRESS RELEASE
From Camborne School of Mines at University of Exeter
Cornwall at the United Nations
Cornwall was in the limelight at the United Nations yesterday. Researchers at the Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter were delighted that two short films introducing the new United Nations Resource Management System (UNRMS) and its first application in Cornwall were launched at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The films featured in the opening session of the UN Resource Management Week on Tuesday 25 April and were introduced by a UK Government representative.
Camborne School of Mines has been working with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership to consider all the actions that Cornwall needs to take to make the renaissance of metals mining a success for everyone in Cornwall. This work uses the new UN Resource Management System as its framework and is the first case study of the new system, which will be rolled out across the globe using learning from the first examples. The University team has made two films to help with this: one to introduce the Cornwall case study and one as a general introduction to the UNRMS. University researchers are attending the conference to present their results from Cornwall and discuss how circular economy research can help towards the UNRMS and UN sustainable development goals.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, based in Geneva, has created its new resource management system to help national and regional governments consider the whole range of sustainable development actions needed to make sure that truly sustainable development will flow from mineral resources.
‘It is an exciting time in Cornwall now with several projects working hard towards producing the minerals and metals we need for energy transition technologies. Getting this new mining right is about much more than just opening a new mine, there are all kinds of environmental, skills, community, and wider economic issues to consider. In fact, we need a whole new global circular economy for technology metals and Cornwall can play a part in that.’ – Professor Frances Wall of Camborne School of Mines said
Dr Eva Marquis, Research Fellow at Camborne School of Mines and the Environment and Sustainability Institute said, ‘It’s really good to see Cornwall taking a lead in considering all the issues. The new UNRMS was being devised at just the right time for us to try it out in Cornwall’.
Dr Kate Smith, Research Fellow at Camborne School of Mines said, ‘The films were great fun to make, and we hope they will be used at home here in Cornwall and across the World to introduce the new UNRMS. We already have sent the links to colleagues in Zambia’.
The films were made by researchers from the UKRI Met4Tech Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals at Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter and funded by the Department of Business and Trade to complement the UK Critical Minerals Strategy.
Videos on Youtube:
What is UNRMS? https://youtu.be/4BryhgEwDa8
Cornwall case study: https://youtu.be/lR6SvZdNFs0
Other useful links
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise report featuring the UNRMS
NICER circular economy programme hub
UN Economic Commission for Europe
Photo by Red Zeppelin on Unsplash
Great to see there’s a plan and the UNRMS is actively involved in these projects. Mining and good environmental stewardship should go hand in hand!