2025 OECD Forum | The Call For An International Agreement on Minerals

From 5 to 7 May 2025, the Secretariat of the Global Council for Responsible Transition Minerals participated in the 2025 edition of the OECD Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains. This year, the Forum addressed key topics related to responsible business conduct and due diligence of minerals, including coherence between ESG initiatives, measuring the impact of due diligence, regional sessions, environmental due diligence, and artisanal and small-scale mining initiative to enable responsible sourcing and drive formalization.

Our Call for an International Agreement at the Ministerial Roundtable

On the first day of the Forum, Justin Vaïsse, Director General of the Forum de Paris sur la Paix and Head of the Secretariat of the Global Council for Responsible Transition Minerals - made a strong call for an International Agreement on the Management of Mineral Resources at the Opening Ministerial Roundtable.

"International institutions and norms are currently under a lot of pressure - because of structural factors, geopolitical frictions and major policy shifts within the international community. In this context, and more than ever, there is a critical need for an international agreement on the governance of mineral resources, alongside a specific dedicated body or agency."

Columbia also voiced support for such a binding agreement. Columbia’s Vice Minister of Environmental Policies and Regulations affirmed that “the Colombian government has [called] for a mandatory agreement [which could] assess the whole value chain, with transparency and traceability [rules] at the international level. We need to have international standards that make it possible to have full transparency.”

Justin Vaïsse recalled that the Global Council for Responsible Transition Minerals outlined key steps in that direction in its interim report, released in November 2024, and reaffirmed its commitments: 

"We will keep working with key partners like the OECD, to bring normative expertise and policy engineering in support of more ambitious international agenda on Transition Minerals. The Global Council stands ready to coordinate and collaborate with all stakeholders to that end."

Our Special Advisor Meeting: Open Discussion on an International Minerals & Metals Agency

On the second day, the Secretariat of the Global Council pursued discussions with its Special Advisors. Prof. Paul Ekins, member of UN Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel (IRP), made a compelling case for an International Minerals and Metals Agency (IMMA) - focusing on mainstreaming sustainable development across value chains, addressing price stability, tailings, and sustainability standards. His presentation drew on the IRP’s 2020 landmark report “Mineral Resource Governance in the 21st Century” and a forthcoming publication focused on financing the responsible supply of energy transition minerals (ETMs).

Mineral resources, when well-governed, can contribute substantially to sustainable development. However, the current governance landscape is fragmented, dominated by sector-specific policies and voluntary standards such as IRMA, the Africa Mining Vision, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). These frameworks, while valuable, do not provide the integrated, cross-sectoral oversight required to align mining practices with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Additionally, there is a need to account for the contribution of these minerals to the green transition and its global implications.

While governments hold a critical role – responsible for awarding exploration and ownership rights, improving transparency, adequately incorporating social and environmental assessments, and designing effective fiscal regimes –, international policy action is essential to ensure greater minerals global governance. This includes better regulating transnational corporations, promoting fairer investment and trade laws, tackling financial market volatility and illicit flows, and support technology transfer and capacity building.

In this context, the creation of an International Minerals and Metals Agency (IMMA) could serve as a key institutional anchor, overseeing resource governance, disseminating market and endowment data, and promoting international cooperation. This could pave the way for a binding international agreement on the management of resources, an essential step to catalyze international cooperation, greater benefit sharing and technical transfer into legal obligations.

The Global Council will continue engaging with its Members, Special Advisors and international partners to explore how best to catalyze this vision into actionable policy.