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Explore our publications on a wide range of topics, to find the powerful facts, stories and approaches that underpin our work to make the extractive industry more open, accountable and participatory.
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Mining Indaba 2024: What We Want
At the 2024 Mining Indaba happening in Cape Town from 5 to 8 February, PWYP members advocate for African leaders to ensure that transition minerals bring genuine prosperity and development of the continent. Any commitment or deal made during those four days and beyond should ensure people and communities’ best interest. Read more: Recommendations […]
A Partnership of Equals?
A Partnership of Equals? How to strengthen the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Strategic Partnerships The European Union’s (EU) Critical Raw Minerals Act (CRMA) is an important part of the bloc’s attempt to address the challenges of securing sustainable access to Critical Raw Materials (CRM). The aim is to reduce dependency on single third-country suppliers and promote circularity […]
PWYP 2023 Africa Conference Report
The world needs to slow climate change to prevent catastrophic impacts, and must replace fossil fuels with cleaner energy sources to do it. In June the Africa Conference 2023 was held in Saly, Senegal for three days of relationship-building, reflection, and strategising on how we can tackle this issue and work towards a collaborative and fair […]
National Coordinators Survey 2023: A snapshot of coalition action
The extractive sector has long been defined by poor governance and a lack of transparency which contribute among other things to corruption, human rights abuses and environmental degradation, putting people and the planet at risk. Tackling these challenges means battling against deeply entrenched and powerful interests – which can take years of advocacy. 39 out […]
Transitional minerals in the DRC: putting citizens in control
Copper and cobalt are two of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) biggest exports. Cobalt is one of the world’s most sought after minerals: a key component in the lithium-ion batteries which power electric vehicles (EVs), as well as mobile batteries and laptops. Copper is used in renewable energy systems to generate power from […]
Transition minerals in Zambia: ending community poverty
Zambia is Africa’s second biggest copper producer, and has been a major producer of the metal for more than a century. Now global copper demand is accelerating and will continue to surge because of its critical role in the push to decarbonise the planet. Thanks to its electrical conductivity and low reactivity, copper is […]
Transition minerals in Madagascar: for a transparent community consultation
Madagascar produces key transition minerals, including cobalt and nickel: both ingredients in the lithium-ion batteries used in most electric vehicles (EVs) and in renewable energy storage. The mining sector accounts for around 30% of the country’s exports. But despite possessing substantial deposits of the natural riches considered key to the energy transition, Madagascar’s 28 […]
Recommendations for a common African vision on transition minerals
To make the most of the transition minerals boom, African leaders need to come together and act urgently to ensure that the emerging transition minerals market is well-regulated, transparent, just and equitable. The world needs to stop burning fossil fuels. Climate change is already happening and to prevent the worst impacts we must accelerate the […]
Wanted: a common vision for transition minerals extraction in Africa
This op-ed has first been published in the South-African media Daily Maverick Read our key recommendations for a shared African vision on transition minerals extraction here. Zambian and other African nations’ minerals are crucial for a low carbon world. But reform is essential if our people are to benefit from the wealth they will […]
Many crises, one movement
Peoples’ needs must be at the heart of the global energy transition. Our global movement can help achieve this, writes PWYP’s new Executive Director, Edwin Ikhuoria. My role as Executive Director of PWYP begins as COP 27 in Egypt ends. There, once again, governments fell short of taking adequate action to meet the greatest challenge […]
Transition minerals could transform the DRC, but local communities must have their say
This op-ed has first been published on November 13, 2022 in the Independent – Uganda Transition minerals could transform the Democratic Republic of Congo, but local communities must have their say, writes Jean-Claude Katende, National Coordinator of Publish What You Pay Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo’s natural resources have been plundered at a terrible cost […]
COP27: Local communities must not pay the price as the world scrambles to extract transition minerals
Human rights and the environment must be protected in the scramble to extract minerals used in clean energy technologies, more than 230 civil society organisations from 62 countries have told world leaders attending the United Nation’s COP 27 climate summit in Egypt in a statement published today. The signatory organisations work in various fields, from […]