Source:
UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health, 2025 News
The United Nations is considering the creation of a Global Minerals Trust, a multilateral mechanism designed to pool and manage critical mineral resources in order to stabilize supply chains and support the global energy transition. The proposal aims to ensure equitable access to minerals essential for clean energy technologies—such as lithium, cobalt, rare earths, and nickel—by fostering coordinated investment, recycling programs, and transparent market data. The trust would also promote sustainable extraction standards and channel benefits to resource-rich developing countries, potentially reducing the “resource curse” effects that have historically plagued many mining economies.
The concept has emerged amid mounting concerns that the race for critical minerals is deepening geopolitical divides, with wealthy nations and major corporations competing for access while producer countries struggle to maximize local benefits. By creating a centralized governance structure, the Global Minerals Trust could help balance market volatility, improve supply security for clean technology manufacturing, and create incentives for responsible mining practices. However, the idea faces political hurdles, as major powers may be reluctant to share control over resource flows or submit to multilateral oversight.
For such a trust to succeed, stakeholder participation will be fundamental—not only from states and corporations, but also from civil society, indigenous communities, and local governments in mining regions. Securing a social license to operate at both the project and global governance levels would require embedding environmental safeguards, human rights protection, and fair revenue-sharing into the trust’s operational model. Without this legitimacy, the initiative risks being perceived as another top-down mechanism that serves industrialized nations’ needs while sidelining the voices of those most directly affected by mineral extraction.