ABSTRACT
The African mining sector has played a pivotal role in generating employment opportunities, driving economic growth, and contributing to tax revenues for numerous governments. However, this sector has also been associated with a range of social and environmental challenges, including the displacement of Indigenous communities and the loss of traditional livelihoods and cultural heritage, as well as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, which pose significant risks to the local, regional, and global environment. Addressing these complex challenges from a normative perspective at a regional or international level is complicated by the interpretation and application of sovereign rights. In response, regulatory regimes including state-centric and transnational approaches have been adopted. In 2009, the Africa Mining Vision was adopted to ensure Africa’s mineral resource endowment contributed to the continent’s and its people’s social and economic development. However, its implementation has been stifled by the lack of political will. The chapter argues that a more thorough and expansive interdisciplinary definition of political will, which considers various factors and contexts, can assist in determining where and when the political will exists and, if it doesn’t, what actual component is missing from the current state-centric approach. This chapter aims to critically evaluate the feasibility of a transnational approach as an alternative to the state-centric approach to implementing the Africa Mining Vision and evaluates its alignment with emerging transnational environmental norms, predicated on sustainable development and climate change. The chapter concludes that a nuanced approach to political will and a transnational approach to policymaking, including effective environmental impact assessments for the environmental sustainability of any project, including mining could increase the likelihood of successful policy implementation in the context of mining and environmental unsustainability.
