ABSTRACT
The World Bank has estimated that, to power the energy and transport revolutions of the future, roughly double the current volume of minerals and metals will have to be mined. While progress towards clean, renewable energy and electric vehicles is to be welcomed in terms of reducing the world’s carbon footprint, less thought has been given to the security and sustainability of the required raw material supply. Enhanced transparency and sustainability in global value chains are fundamental to guarantee future access to minerals and metals. Metals such as copper, cobalt, chrome and manganese are critical ingredients for powering a low-carbon economy, as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Increasingly, however, they are only to be found in jurisdictions that are traditionally less policy attractive. A number of global policy instruments such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) exist to address weak governance and strengthen institutions in these jurisdictions. This chapter argues that while these instruments are important, it is vital that they be streamlined to ensure genuine ethical sourcing without creating unintended negative development consequences. Moreover, they need to be integrated with other elements of sustainability such as local content provisions, minimally ecologically invasive methods of extraction, principles of circular economy and regional economic integration. We consider the cases of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), both copper-producing jurisdictions. If the resource curse is to be overcome in this part of Africa, then transparency and accountability are only the first steps towards that end. Local content provisions need to be integrated into the development model to complement the benefits of improved governance. At the micro level, pockets of effectiveness need to be identified and replicated where possible. At the macro level, the region’s tax, mining and development policy regimes have to be harmonised to ensure optimal long-term development that is socio-ecologically sustainable.
