Can Gold Make Your Portfolio Greener?

As resource investors become more environmentally conscious, a key question emerging is where the gold industry stands in the fight against climate change.

Earlier this year, the World Gold Council took steps to shed light on that topic with the release of a report called “Gold and Climate Change: An Introduction.” Published this past June, the document lays out initial data on the gold industry’s contributions to addressing climate change.

The verdict? While it’s early days yet, the report shows that the greenhouse gas emissions associated with gold mining are much lower than they are for other key commodities, including aluminum and coal.

“Gold is rare, and one of the advantages of gold being rare is that there isn’t that much of it that’s actually being mined out of the ground every year,” explained World Gold Council CFO Terry Heymann at the Denver Gold Forum last week.

“When you look at total emissions … the total greenhouse gas emissions from gold are significantly less than most major mined products just because the volumes are quite low. On the other hand, per unit mass emissions are relatively high because of that rarity,” he continued.

As Heymann explained, the upshot is that “in terms of total emissions, and indeed in terms of emissions per unit of value, gold comes out significantly better in terms of lower emissions than pretty much all other major mined categories.”

Watch the interview above for more details from Heymann on the role gold can play in a green portfolio.

Overall, he said, we’re starting to see “more and more investors who not only recognize that they have a responsibility in terms of environmental/social governance, but are also using that to actively guide their investment decisions.”

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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in contributed article. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.