Critical Minerals for a Sustainable Energy Transition: Strengthening Environmental Assessment, Risk Management and Mining Governance | Espoo Side Event

As part of the Geneva Dialogues on Minerals and Metals, and organized as a side event to the Tenth Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context and the Sixth Meeting of the Parties to its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment, this event examines how international environmental governance frameworks can help ensure that the growing demand for critical minerals and metals needed for the energy transition is met in a manner that is environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and supportive of international cooperation. It will explore the role of environmental assessment, industrial safety and transboundary governance in advancing responsible mineral value chains while protecting people and the environment.

About this Event

This side event to the Tenth Meeting of the Parties (MOP-10) to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) and the Sixth Meeting of the Parties (MOP-6) to its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), convening in Geneva, from 1 to 4 December 2026, organized as part of the Geneva Dialogues on Minerals and Metals, will examine how international environmental governance frameworks can help ensure that the growing demand for critical minerals and metals needed for the energy transition is met in a manner that is environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and supportive of international cooperation.

To achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy systems will rely heavily on critical minerals and metals that are essential for renewable energy technologies, energy storage, and electric mobility. At the same time, the growing demand for these resources creates significant environmental and social challenges, which are futher compounded by the increasing demand for critical minerals in other growing sectors, notably artificial intelligence. These pressures must be carefully managed to protect the people and the environment.

Broader international efforts to promote responsible and sustainable mineral value chains already exist, including the United Nations Secretary-General’s Initiative on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, which developed seven common principles and five actionable recommendations to ensure that energy transition is fair, equitable and environmentally sustainable. The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), the world’s highest decision-making body on the environment, has adopted resolutions on Mineral Resource Governance, including the most recent UNEA resolution 7/3, which calls for strengthened international cooperation and environmental sustainability across the full life cycle of minerals.

Legally binding frameworks can also play an important role in advancing responsible mineral development. The instruments of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) provide practical tools to strengthen environmental governance, transparency and risk prevention across the mineral value chain. These include the Espoo Convention and its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment, which support the integration of environmental considerations into mining policies, plans and projects from the earliest stages. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) can help ensure that activities throughout the lifecycle of critical minerals are environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and compatible with long-term environmental protection, particularly in a transboundary context. In particular, SEAs can be applied at the policy and planning levels to support the development of shared road maps, strengthen cross-border cooperation, and ensure that environmental considerations are integrated into energy transition strategies. The Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents provides a framework for preventing industrial accidents, including those associated with mining activities and tailings management, and for enhancing preparedness, response and international cooperation in the event of accidents with transboundary consequences. The Convention will also convene its fourteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP-14) in Geneva on 9-10 December 2026, providing an opportunity for countries to strengthen cooperation on industrial safety and the prevention of mining-related accidents with transboundary impacts.

This side event to the UNECE Espoo Convention MOP-10 and its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment MOP-6, organized within the framework of the Geneva Dialogues on Minerals and Metals, will bring together leading experts to consider how we can ensure that EIAs remain effective safeguards rather than becoming mere procedural formalities. The event will also explore how the Espoo Convention, the SEA protocol and the Convention on Industrial Accident can support the responsible and sustainable management of critical energy transition minerals throughout their lifecycle, strengthen mining governance, and help countries integrate environmental considerations into energy-transition policies, plans and projects, including with regard to their transboundary impacts. The discussion will be placed within the broader context of existing international efforts and initiatives aimed at advancing sustainability across the critical minerals value chain, highlighting opportunities for synergies, cooperation and policy coherence.

Speakers

By order of intervention. Additional speakers to be confirmed.

Martine ROHN-BROSSARD

Deputy Head of International Affairs Division of the Federal Office for the Environment, Switzerland

Joseph ORANGIAS

Environmental Affairs Office, Secretariat of the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, UNECE

Participation

This event is open in person to participants accredited to the 10th Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Espoo Convention and the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment, and UN Badge Holders. The event is streamed on YouTube.

About the Geneva Dialogues on Minerals and Metals

The topic of sustainable management of minerals has never been so high on the global political environment agenda and the reason is that minerals are essential for the future. The energy transition, infrastructure and digitalization processes, among others, represent greener solutions. However, unsustainable extraction, manufacturing, use and disposal of resources is having important detrimental impacts on people and the planet. With an expected 500 per cent increase in the demand for minerals (from 2018 production levels), environmental challenges are going to be even more acute.

Various actors in Geneva are engaged in ensuring enhanced action to support the environmental sustainability management of minerals and metals along their full lifecycle. As Geneva is at the center of numerous debates and negotiations in the fields of science, health, human rights, development, trade and green finance, employment, peacebuilding and security, disaster risk reduction, humanitarian response, nature conservation, chemicals and pollution, as well as new technologies and innovation, the dialogues can be a conducive platform to explore interlinkages between these topics and mineral and metal resources governance.

The dialogues are organized by the Geneva Environment Network in partnership with Switzerland, Senegal, UNEP/GRID-Geneva, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), The Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS) and the World Resources Forum.