Step up action to tackle corruption that undermines a fair climate transition

The UK’s efforts to scale up climate action have been deemed “worryingly slow”, undermining the health of our environment, our future energy security, and ambitions to become a clean energy superpower. 

Concerted action is urgently required to tackle this global challenge. We must ensure a responsible and reliable supply of the critical minerals that underpin renewable technologies: materials like lithium, cobalt, rare earths, and nickel. These resources underpin renewable technologies powering the investment needed to meet Paris Agreement goals, and phase out fossil fuels. Electric vehicles, offshore and onshore wind, and solar PV all require significantly higher inputs of minerals than their fossil fuel based counterparts.

The UK’s future energy security and ambitions to become a clean energy superpower quite literally depends on our ability to ensure a responsible and reliable supply of the critical minerals.

But, as demand booms, mineral supply chains become increasingly vulnerable to corruption.

Countless experts have highlighted these risks, noting how corruption leads to decades of delays and disruption, exacerbates the worst socio-environmental impacts of mining, and diverts sector revenues into the hands of elites. The extractives sector is responsible for one in five transnational bribery cases, but the location of key mineral reserves further compounds this challenge: 94% of rare earth and 70% of cobalt reserves are found in countries that score poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. There has been a recent uptick in corruption-linked allegations of human rights abuse in the sector, and major scandals are already hitting headlines.

Despite this, the UK is currently a laggard on the international stage. A 2023 Foreign Affairs Committee report highlighted that successive UK governments have failed to recognise the importance of these minerals to the UK’s future economic and energy security, including the impact of corruption. Amidst China’s dominance in mineral processing and refining, and the US and EU’s increasingly active stance on supply security, the UK must find a way to navigate these dynamics without alienating mineral producing countries in the Global South. The chaos in international energy markets caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlights the perils of inaction, and of turning a blind eye to extractives-sector corruption.

So the government must:

  • The UK should push for stronger, more coordinated international action on anti corruption measures in high-risk critical mineral supply chains in the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) and the UN Secretary General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals:

    • Expand technical assistance to mineral-producing countries that prioritise integrity and governance measures, and ensure strong mandatory requirements for anti-corruption, environmental, and social standards for mining companies. 

    • Ensure there are robust anti-corruption measures in the MSP’s Economic Social and Governance (ESG) standards, underpinned by proper transparency and oversight. While the MSP has stated that it’s committed to upholding high ESG standards, it hasn’t elaborated on what this means. 

    • Include concrete anti-corruption measures in any bilateral mineral partnerships the UK agrees. A lack of transparency regarding partnerships agreed with Saudi Arabia, Canada, South Africa and Japan thus far makes it impossible to assess whether they meet this criterion.

  • Climate policymaking is vulnerable to undue influence, so we need to ensure:

    • Greater transparency over industry lobbying, including trade associations and spending levels.

    • Stricter limits on the revolving door of former oil and gas employees entering government and former Ministers entering the fossil fuel industry.

    • Conflicts of interest are properly addressed within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.

  • To address corruption risks in climate spending and climate relevant sectors at home and abroad, we must provide sufficient training and resources to teams investigating and prosecuting environmental crime and natural resource corruption and money laundering cases. We must also develop stronger anti-corruption protections on climate-related subsidies and financing:

    • The UK’s international reputation has been seriously damaged by the Serious Fraud Office’s recent failures in major mining sector anti-corruption cases against ENRC and Rio Tinto. Ensuring that prosecutors have the resources and funding they need to carry out their roles effectively is essential to address this damage. 

    • This work should be underpinned by much greater efforts to support and compensate the victims of corruption. We must also return assets recovered from anti-corruption cases to affected countries. This work is essential to relationship-building with those countries.