Best Practices for Corporate Governance: The Mariana Dam Disaster: Shared Learnings Eight Years On

BEST PRACTICES FOR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

The Mariana Dam Disaster: Shared Learnings Eight Years On

This webinar, hosted by Canning House in partnership with Pogust Goodhead, will reflect on the shared learnings from the Mariana Dam Disaster from multifaceted perspectives.

Questions to be explored include: which legal strategies can be transferred from the Mariana Dam case for holding multinational companies accountable for incidents involving their subsidiaries in the Global South? How does the Mariana Dam case speak to the wider advancements in climate change litigation over the past decade? Reflecting on the Mariana Dam response, what can be done to build effective partnerships with corporate stakeholders, local authorities, environmental experts, and host communities? And how may stakeholders mobilise these partnerships on the ground to influence the changes in policies, regulations, and risk management strategies on the books? Most crucially, how may these shared learnings from the Mariana Dam break be leveraged to prevent environmental, social, and economic damage for the mutual benefit of corporate stakeholders and host communities alike?

SPEAKERS

Chair: Jeremy Browne

CEO - Canning House

Ana Carolina Salomão Queiroz

Chief Investment Officer - Pogust Goodhead

Dr Stephen Barrie

Deputy Chief Responsible Investment Officer - Church of England Pensions Board

Professor Leigh A. Payne

Professor of Sociology and Latin America, University of Oxford

Jorge V. Cardenas

Americas Regional Manager, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre

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This webinar, organised by Canning House in partnership with international law firm Pogust Goodhead, seeks to examine one of the largest cases ever filed in English courts and its repercussions for corporate accountability in Latin America. The £36-billion lawsuit against global mining firm BHP seeks redress for 700,000 plaintiffs affected by “the worst environmental disaster Brazil had ever seen”, in the words of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. On 5th November 2015, the collapse of Fundão tailings dam (also known as the Mariana dam) unleashed an avalanche of over 40 million cubic metres of mining waste, which travelled 435 miles- further than the distance from London to Edinburgh- to enter the Atlantic Ocean. In the aftermath of the dam break, a reported 11 tons of fish carcasses were collected, which included over 98 affected species, 13 of which were exclusive to the Doce River. Beyond the basin, satellite images and studies show that the iron-ore residue polluted one of the most biodiverse areas in the South Atlantic Ocean. The dam’s rupture also had a devastating effect on the local community who lost their homes, livelihoods, and social networks, as well as reportedly later experiencing physical and mental health issues. The dam was owned and operated by Brazilian mining company, Samarco Mineração in a joint venture between Vale S.A. and BHP Billiton (now BHP).

Since the dam break in 2015, multiple law suits through Brazilian and international courts have pushed for truth, corporate accountability, and guarantees of non-repetition. Such lawsuits include allegations for negligence in operating the dam and claims for the damages to the victims and their families. On 2nd March 2016, Samarco reached a USD$6 billion settlement to restore the environment and to indemnify the affected communities. An agreement between the corporations involved- BHP, Samarco and Vale- led to the establishment of the Renova Foundation: a non-profit organisation dedicated to mobilising the reparation of the damages. The Foundation’s Mediated Indemnity Programme (PIM) paid BRL500 million (almost £80 million) to victims by October 2017. It has been involved in the emergency response, as well as dealing with the long-term effects of the incident, through three key priorities: resettlement, compensation, and restoring livelihoods.

On 3rd May 2016, a partial agreement was reached, calling for experts to conduct environmental and social impact studies and to evaluate the recovery programmes. Two years later, on 25th June 2018, Vale and BHP Billiton announced that they had signed a settlement for a USD$5.3 billion lawsuit. In October that same year, Brazilian prosecutors announced that they had reached a final compensation deal for an undisclosed amount with Samarco, Vale and BHP Billiton- including compensation for the families of the 19 victims who died as a result of the dam’s collapse. However, as the long-term damages unfolded, Brazilian federal and state prosecutors asked the court to reopen the civil action lawsuit against the corporate stakeholders in October 2020.

Meanwhile, 5,000 miles away from Brazil, international law firm Pogust Goodhead (formerly PGMBM) decided to file a class action lawsuit against BHP Group Plc. in London, where the company was headquartered at the time. In November 2020, the English High Court exercised its power to strike out proceedings on the basis that the claim duplicated the ongoing proceedings and compensation in Brazil. However, in a monumental ruling, the Court of Appeal unanimously granted jurisdiction for the case to be heard in the courts of England and Wales in July 2022. The case represented by Pogust Goodhead has now grown to involve over 700,000 plaintiffs including residents, businesses, Indigenous communities, municipalities, and faith-based institutions. An eight-week trial in the UK has now been listed for October 2024 for the potential £36-billion lawsuit, making it the largest group litigation in the history of the English civil court.

Eight years on, this webinar hosted by Canning House, in partnership with Pogust Goodhead, will reflect on the shared learnings from the Mariana Dam break from multifaceted perspectives. Questions to be explored include: which legal strategies can be transferred from the Mariana Dam case for holding multinational companies accountable for incidents involving their subsidiaries in the Global South? How does the Mariana Dam case speak to the wider advancements in climate change litigation over the past decade? Reflecting on the Mariana Dam response, what can be done to build effective partnerships with corporate stakeholders, local authorities, environmental experts, and host communities? And how may stakeholders mobilise these partnerships on the ground to influence the changes in policies, regulations, and risk management strategies on the books? Most crucially, how may these shared learnings from the Mariana Dam break be leveraged to prevent environmental, social, and economic damage for the mutual benefit of corporate stakeholders and host communities alike.

Questions?

Please contact us with any questions about this event.