The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ World Economic and Social Prospects (WESP) 2025 report includes a thematic study titled “Harnessing the Potential of Critical Minerals for Sustainable Development”, which offers a policy-oriented framework for aligning the global critical-minerals boom with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The analysis responds to the accelerating demand for lithium, cobalt, graphite, rare earths, and other strategic resources, noting that these minerals are vital for clean energy technologies but present significant governance, environmental, and equity challenges.
The report outlines three core pillars for a sustainable critical-mineral strategy:
• Responsible Supply Chains – Establishing transparency and traceability mechanisms, coupled with rigorous environmental and labor safeguards, to ensure that extraction does not come at the expense of ecosystems or workers’ rights.
• Value Addition in Producing Countries – Promoting local processing, refining, and manufacturing capacity to capture more economic benefits domestically, rather than exporting raw ores.
• Community-Centered Development – Ensuring that revenues from mining are reinvested in infrastructure, education, and health systems in mining regions, alongside meaningful consultation processes with affected communities.
The relevance of this study lies in its explicit recognition that social license to operate is inseparable from the governance of critical-mineral supply chains. By positioning communities as stakeholders—not just passive recipients of compensation, the report emphasizes that equitable benefit-sharing, cultural respect, and environmental stewardship are preconditions for political stability and investor confidence necessary to scale up production. For countries such as Peru, Mozambique, and the DRC, this means that securing a place in the critical-mineral economy will depend as much on trust-building and institutional capacity as on geological endowment.