Transforming natural finite assets into human, social and physical capital is a key challenge for natural resource-rich countries. This report distils related lessons from the OECD Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-based Development on natural resource revenue management and spending for sustainable development.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has the potential to improve the contribution of extractive industries (EI) to sustainable development and poverty reduction. However, this report by the WBG's operations evaluation departments finds that although its EI projects have produced positive economic and financial results, it has not been successful in ensuring compliance to environmental and social safeguards. The paper examines the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, to assess their performance in moving away from a focus on economic benefits towards sustainable development, addressing the governance challenges associated with resource-rich countries, and mitigating environmental and social costs of the extractive industry.

This book looks at the distribution, occurrences, potential and prospects for good governance, transparency and sustainable development of geological resources in Sub-Saharan Africa. By bringing together numerous different point of views, it is carried out in a holistic, interdisciplinary and scientific way.The states of Sub-Saharan Africa are amon

The sustainable development of minerals, which are non-renewable resources, is a major challenge in today's world. In this regard the true definition of 'sustainability' is a debating point in itself: can such a concept exist with respect to non-renewable resources? Perhaps the ideal sustainability model is one that minimizes negative environmental impact and maximizes benefits to society, the economy and regional/national development. Developed and near-developed economies rely for commodity supplies on developing countries where major mining operations are often a mainstay of the domestic economy. Limited environmental regulation and low wages lead to charges of exploitation. Also, large numbers of people have no alternative to living by informal, often dangerous, 'artisanal' mining. This Special Publication gives examples from developing countries from all scales of mineral extraction. The volume reviews environmental, economic, health and social problems and highlights the need to solve these before sustainability can be achieved. The better solutions require mutual understanding, through full involvement of all stakeholders, education, training and investment so that small-scale and artisanal mines can grow into well-managed operations. At larger scales, most major international mining companies have now improved their practices and are monitoring their progress, although there is no room for complacency in this rapidly changing area.

"How can investors be encouraged to consider more than purely commercial and short-term gains? Various sets of investment principles have emerged in recent years. These principles aim to incorporate social, environmental and governance criteria into investment decisions in order to enhance the benefits and reduce the damaging effects of investment for development. Increasing numbers of organisations are signing up to these principles for reasons that range from improving their reputation to minimising risks and improving long-term investment prospects. Yet their impact on sustainable development remains unproven. Focusing on four major sets of investment principles - the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the Equator Principles, the Environmental and Social Principles of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises - Investing for sustainable development? takes a first step in assessing the content, take-up, implementation and impact of investment principles. The study finds that the main impact of investment principles on sustainable development so far is mitigation of the worst effects of investments rather than a shift in the underlying basis of decision-making. Investors are generally unwilling to compromise high returns for improved sustainable development outcomes. The authors call for better monitoring and measurement of the impact of investment principles, as well as a better understanding of the broader institutional changes required to support them so the next generation of investment principles can be more ambitious and bring about investment that supports, rather than undermines, sustainable development."--Publisher description.

This report provides guidance on how governments can support their sovereign wealth funds in becoming climate-aligned commercial investors. The establishment of synergies between sovereign wealth funds and strategic investment funds can help scale up investments in clean-energy infrastructure.

During Latin America’s China-led commodity boom, governments turned a blind eye to the inherent flaws in the region’s economic policy. Now that the commodity boom is coming to an end, those flaws cannot be ignored. High on the list of shortcomings is the fact that Latin American governments—and Chinese investors—largely fell short of mitigating the social and environmental impacts of commodity-led growth. The recent commodity boom exacerbated pressure on the region’s waterways and forests, accentuating threats to human health, biodiversity, global climate change and local livelihoods. China and Sustainable Development in Latin America documents the social and environmental impact of the China-led commodity boom in the region. It also highlights important areas of innovation, like Chile’s solar energy sector, in which governments, communities and investors worked together to harness the commodity boom for the benefit of the people and the planet.

This book explores the impact of resource extraction and the dynamics of great powers competing for natural resources in the Caribbean. The book analyzes labour–capital relations between China, the United States, the European Union, and Russia in the Caribbean, as competition increases with the arrival of non-traditional sources of foreign investments in infrastructure from the East. Chapters assess these dynamics through varying historical and current forms of worker, community, and organization resistance in the Caribbean’s extractive industries from the 1970s to the present. In doing so, the book critically analyzes the interplay of extractive capital with labour unions, community organizations, management, and the state, particularly regarding the struggle for higher wages, improved working conditions, and the broader issues of extractive capitalism and underdevelopment, dispossession, social exclusion, and environmental degradation. The first book on Extractivism and Labour in the Caribbean and a major contribution to critical development studies literature, it will appeal to policymakers as well as students and scholars in the fields of development studies, development economics, sociology, politics, and international relations.

This brief focuses on lessons from the extractive resource sectors (oil, gas and mining) for REDD+ benefit-sharing. Specifically, it examines the different ways that revenues accruing to the government are distributed to subnational levels and the outcomes of different arrangements for doing so. These lessons are particularly relevant for scenarios where REDD+ revenues might reach significant volumes. Two main sorts of revenue would need to be distributed in the case of REDD+: i) payments to central or sub-national governments from international sources for emissions reduced and ii) taxes and fees collected by central government from REDD+ activities (Irawan et al. 2014). In both cases, decisions are needed on how to redistribute revenue between central and sub-national levels. A key concern in decisions over public revenues is allocation across jurisdictions. In this paper, we look at the rationales behind the way revenues from the sector are shared both with sub-national governments and across extractive and non-extractive localities. This experience is relevant for key questions facing REDD+ such as how to link benefit to performance at the sub-national levels, how to compensate costs, how to distribute benefits across a nation and how to enhance development outcomes. In so doing, we address key concerns in the debate about REDD+ benefit-sharing. These include how REDD+ might act as an incentive for reducing deforestation and degradation, and how it might also be integrated into development planning to help achieve wider outcomes.

This book considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the realisation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Although efforts towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals are ongoing, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on these efforts: accentuating inequities, as well as absorbing resources. This book addresses this impact, as it takes up the question of how to ensure global recovery – in line with the target for the Sustainable Development Goals – after the pandemic. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, but focusing particularly on the role of law and legal frameworks in this recovery, the book considers the effect of the pandemic on key industries such as shipping, insurance, manufacturing, and banking, as well as on the role of the State and non-State actors. Pursuing an explicitly Global South perspective, the book maintains that in the post-COVID era it is the elaboration a rule of law framework that is in sync with both the Global North and South that is crucial if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved. This book will be of value to scholars, students and policymakers working in the general area of law and development, but especially those with specific interests in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.