Mining sector governance and policy

Governance arrangements in the resources and extractive industries are increasingly complex. Our researchers are actively engaged in international review processes to ensure voluntary initiatives and certification schemes, lead to improvements in industry policy and practice literature.

CSRM researchers also contribute to the development of leading practice guidelines through agencies such as the World Bank, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the International Council for Minerals and Metals (ICMM).

The urgency to provide metals for the energy transition is putting even more pressure on the legal safeguards and approval processes governing mining.

Flags of the G20 nations. AdobeStock

T20 Policy Brief

CSRM is collaborating with global policy think tanks to make targeted recommendations to the G20 under Brazil’s presidency in 2024, on how to safeguard Indigenous and land-connected peoples in critical minerals development for the energy transition.

Policymakers have significant knowledge gaps about where and how changes in the global mining footprint may affect local communities and the immediate environment on and around mining concessions.

The objective is to draw attention to this issue and profile CSRM’s research within the high-level global governance forum. In the process, we will build international collaboration with co-authors from three organisations: Nia Tero, the African Minerals Development Centre of the African Union and the South African Institute of International Affairs. We will create a network of key stakeholders in government, academia, industry and civil society to lobby for uptake of the recommendations.

The G20 includes major industrialised and mineral producing countries and is a unique organisation that bridges the Global North and South, East and West. It includes the US, EU, India, China, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, Indonesia, South Africa and the African Union.

The policy brief will be published by the T20 Taskforce on Fostering Sustainable, Inclusive and Just Energy Transitions. The T20 is a ‘track 2’ initiative of public policy think tanks from the G20 countries, which makes policy recommendations to the G20 governments.

Project lead

Associate Professor Kathry Sturman
Principal Research Fellow

 

Professor Deanna Kemp
Director, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining
 
Associate Professor Kathry Sturman
Principal Research Fellow
 
Dr Éléonore Lèbre
Senior Research Fellow
 
Dr Sandy Worden

See full list of CSRM researchers