Global Governance of Critical Materials: A Framework for Analysis

The study provides an overview of the evolving global governance for critical materials which are essential for clean energy technologies, defence, and technology sectors. Building on an original dataset of 122 international governance initiatives, the study examines the emerging architecture for global critical materials governance. It maps institutions and their members, actors, and rules that shape it. The study finds that during 2019-2025 the world has witnessed the emergence of numerous new international governance initiatives for critical materials with the mandate to set standards, regulate markets, and diffuse policies. And yet, there is still no truly global organization for critical materials, like International Energy Agency for energy, OPEC for oil and gas or International Renewable Energy Agency for renewables. The unprecedented growth of global governance institutions calls, first, for introducing the concept of global mineral governance (GMG), second, establishing it a separate field of enquiry that requires scholarly attention from various social science disciplines. Key findings are: (1) unlike collaborative and centripetal forces that have shaped the global governance of renewables or oil market, the governance of critical materials has been subject to centrifugal and competitive forces; (2) the existing global governance architecture reflects upon a highly complex geography and multi-layered market structure of extraction, processing, application and re-use of critical materials; (3) OECD countries have been largely norm- and rule-setters for Global South countries where a large share of global production occurs; (4) severe governance gaps are observed in developing countries with a high share of production.