Colleagues, as has been said already, competition for natural resources has long been a driver of conflict.<\/p>\n
And yet, lasting economic growth and prosperity requires expansion of supply and a successful transition to sustainable sources of clean and renewable energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Critical minerals are central to the global energy transition, economic resilience, and modern technology.<\/p>\n
I will make three further points.<\/p>\n
First, as supply chains for critical minerals become more concentrated, competition for these resources is driving geopolitical tension and creating exposure to coercion and disruption.<\/p>\n
Global demand is rising rapidly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meeting this demand has the potential to reshape economies, but also requires responsible management of risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Minerals-driven growth is not automatically stabilising.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And in fragile contexts, mineral revenues can finance armed groups and military actors, deepen corruption, and undermine trust in institutions.<\/p>\n
And Ms DiCarlo highlighted some of the issues that arise, for example, in the Great Lakes region.<\/p>\n
And yet when done well, critical minerals development can, and should be, responsible and sustainable, supporting growth, jobs, and environmental protection in producing countries.<\/p>\n
Second, conflict-sensitive investment in critical minerals is essential.<\/p>\n
This means understanding conflict dynamics, maintaining dialogue with communities and, where appropriate, formalising artisanal mining.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Any shift to industrial mining must ensure communities see the benefits through jobs, energy access, and economic opportunity.<\/p>\n
Good governance is also an essential element.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mineral development must respect national ownership, ensure transparent contracts, and fair taxation, and apply high environmental, social, and governance standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Benefit\u2011sharing must be clear and tangible.<\/p>\n
Third, partnerships are key to meeting global demand in a responsible, sustainable way.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom is committed to a partnerships-based approach to promoting responsible, diversified supply chains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are proud to be helping international partners leverage their mineral resources for inclusive growth.<\/p>\n
For example, the Vale Base Metals refinery in Wales plays a critical role within a globally integrated network, processing nickel that originates from Indonesia and Canada, and undergoes intermediary processing in Japan or Canada before being imported to the UK for final processing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Partnerships with the private sector are also essential for mobilising capital at scale to unlock responsible investment in critical minerals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coordination across sovereign funds, export credits, and private finance can help manage risk and ensure that today\u2019s supply solutions do not become tomorrow\u2019s conflict drivers.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom stands ready to work with partners to ensure critical minerals are a source of stability and not insecurity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colleagues, as has been said already, competition for natural resources has long been a driver of conflict. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-459660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}