Global Roundtable on Extractive Industries: Transforming the Sector into an Engine for Sustainable Development

Starting with the industrial revolution, our global economic system has been underpinned by the extraction of natural resources – notably fossil fuels – which accelerated the development trajectories of many advanced economies. Extractive industries can generate significant revenue for producing countries, creating major opportunities for growth for resource-rich countries. Yet extractive industries have also been mired by economic, social and environmental problems. These challenges have been further compounded by COVID-19, which led to rising debt burdens, constrained fiscal environments, and plummeting commodity prices, which particularly affected both mining, oil and gas in early 2020.

Over the past five months, a series of regional roundtables have taken place in collaboration with Regional Economic Commissions, with support from UN entities working on extractives including the Climate Action Team, UNDP, DESA, UNCTAD, and UNEP. The substantive outcomes from these roundtables informed the first-ever policy brief by the UN Secretary-General on extractive industries.

The Global Roundtable on 25 Mary will assess the key recommendations outlined in this brief and identify concrete actions and recommendations that can be implemented at the global, regional, and national levels. The event will call for concrete solutions on six pressing issues :

1. Integrate a circular economy throughout the extractives sector
2. Secure a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, including for coal-dependent economies, and local communities affected by this change, including women, youth, and indigenous groups
3. Align all forms of public and private finance in the extractives sector with the SDGs and Paris Agreement, and build on pre-existing efforts to create a sustainable finance taxonomy for extractives
4. End the local and global environmental damage caused by extractive industries, including by bolstering transparency and traceability and cleaning global value chains
5. Ensure that green technology and widely available data to monitor carbon emissions and air pollution are a global public good
6. Ensure that extractive industries provide adequate levels of revenue that allow all countries to invest in their populations and in long-term sustainable development

The outcomes will also be carried over into future engagements, including through a new Group of Friends on Extractive Industries, and translated into action on the ground in a set of pilot countries to be identified which will be supported by the UN Regional Economic Commissions (RECs).

Participants

Led by the United Nations Secretary-General, the following stakeholders have been invited to participate in the roundtable:

• Heads of State and Government, High-Level Representatives at Ministerial Level
• Partners from the private sector, civil society and indigenous peoples, academia, and think tanks
• The Executive Secretaries of all five UN Regional Economic Commissions and the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Financing the 2030 Agenda.

The event will be broadcast on UN WEB TV in English only at: http://webtv.un.org/ It can also be viewed via Facebook [@UNwebTV]; Twitter [@UNwebTV]; YouTube [@UNwebTV]