Lessons for an accountable transition: Leveraging beneficial ownership information for natural resource governance

Conclusion

The extractive industries’ experience with transparency reforms has generated a number of lessons that can guide governments and other stakeholders in promoting responsible corporate practices as well as addressing criminality, fraud and corruption in highly strategic sectors. Information on beneficial ownership can be used by multiple stakeholders with an interest in ensuring integrity and accountability across the extractives value chain, in which risks are particularly heightened during the allocation of licenses, subcontracting, collection of revenue and sales of commodities. This briefing has shared actionable lessons and considerations for policy makers and public agencies to improve the availability of beneficial ownership data in their jurisdiction and its use for accountable natural resource extraction and broader natural resource governance.

These considerations are highly relevant in the context of the energy transition: the race to renewables is already underway, and its impacts will include demand for the transition minerals needed for these technologies, which may increase by as much as five-fold by 2040. [99] There is still insufficient attention being given to corruption and integrity risks in both policymaking and the development and delivery of transition minerals, as well as the governance of renewable energy projects which they supply. Ensuring transparency about the individuals who ultimately own and control companies and other corporate vehicles is a necessary step toward securing transparency and accountability in the energy transition. Without it, countries risk repeating the mistakes of the past.