NRGI at the UN Environment Assembly 7 (UNEA-7)
8 December–12 December 2025 Nairobi, Kenya
At UNEA-7, NRGI engaged with governments, UN agencies, and civil society to push for stronger global governance of minerals—one that protects ecosystems, safeguards communities, and ensures producing countries share fairly in the benefits of the energy transition.
As demand for transition minerals accelerates, UNEA-7 was a critical moment to assess whether the multilateral system is equipped to respond. For mineral-producing countries, particularly in the Global South, the stakes are high: without a shift in how extraction, processing, and trade are governed, the energy transition risks repeating the harms of past extractive booms, marked by environmental damage, social costs, and unequal value distribution.
UNEA-7 saw two key developments on minerals. Together, they signal growing
recognition of the issue, while also underscoring the work still ahead to translate dialogue into meaningful action.
Adoption of the Colombia–Oman Resolution on Minerals and Metals
At UNEA-7, member states adopted the resolution “Strengthening international cooperation on the environmentally sound management of minerals and metals,” proposed by Colombia and Oman. The resolution commits countries to a series of dialogues aimed at enhancing international cooperation on the environmental impacts of minerals and metals across their value chains.
The resolution also calls for discussions—together with stakeholders—on strengthening technical, financial, scientific, and technological capacities related to mineral governance, particularly in developing countries. It includes attention to issues such as mining waste, tailings, and resource recovery, and builds on similar decisions taken at previous UN Environment Assemblies.
As mineral demand surges due to the energy transition and digitalization, the resolution represents a step forward in acknowledging the need for global tools to better protect ecosystems and communities. However, many countries and observers called for stronger language to move beyond dialogue toward policymaking. In particular, the resolution stops short of committing to explore international binding standards—leaving a gap between the scale of impacts on the ground and the ambition of the global response.
NRGI will continue to engage in the dialogues leading to UNEA-8, working with partners to support low- and middle-income producing countries in shaping global instruments that ensure the minerals boom does not come at the expense of people or nature.
By advancing this resolution, Colombia and Oman have helped put mineral governance on the global agenda just as demand is accelerating and impacts on communities and ecosystems are mounting. But today’s agreement must be the start, not the ceiling. The dialogues leading to UNEA-8 need to consider the full range of policy tools—including binding international rules—to deliver the accountability that producer countries have long called for.
Launch of the UN Task Force on Critical Energy Transition Minerals
On the sidelines of UNEA-7, the UN launched a Task Force on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, following the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals.
The Task Force will coordinate UN system efforts across the Panel’s principles and actionable recommendations, through five technical workstreams and a country-level support mechanism. It will be chaired jointly by UNEP, UNDP, and UNCTAD.
The Task Force marks an important step in advancing the technical work needed to improve mineral governance and support producing countries in developing more responsible value chains. Its emphasis on coordination, in-country support, and engagement with stakeholders could open meaningful avenues for civil society participation.
At the same time, technical progress on its own is unlikely to be sufficient. Advancing meaningful improvements in mineral governance will also depend on sustained political engagement and adequate resourcing. In this context, the dialogues mandated under the Colombia–Oman resolution provide an important political forum to examine the range of global tools that could help address the environmental and social challenges associated with mineral extraction, including the potential role of binding approaches.
As minerals rise on the geopolitical agenda, the UN Task Force is a timely and necessary step toward making the Panel’s ambitions real. It must work boldly and inclusively with communities and civil society, and it will need political commitment and financial resources—not only technical efforts—to drive a just and equitable new paradigm that safeguards people, ecosystems and economies in producer countries.
COP30: NRGI analysis and resources
Review NRGI’s COP30 insights to see how minerals and just transition questions have evolved in recent climate negotiations