Resources Matter

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and is offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The extraction and use of natural resources underpins a global economy that provides high living standards for many as well as the prospect of ending poverty in the developing world. Mining as well as the oil and gas industry - which constitute the 'extractive industries' - are vitally important sectors in many developing countries. They provide substantial public revenues as well as much-needed foreign exchange, and livelihoods for many. Yet, the extractives industries are highly controversial. The continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels in energy generation and transport, together with the emissions associated with mining and metals refining, has taken the world to levels of emissions that increasingly imperil humanity. In addition, the extractive industries have a poor record of damaging nature both through pollution as well as via the destruction of biodiversity (thereby endangering the livelihoods that depend on such renewable natural capital). This book explores a central issue of our time: our materials world is simultaneously both part of the problem (especially fossil fuels) as well as part of its solution (the materials necessary for the technologies required for 'net zero'). Resources Matter discusses how the extractive industries can be leveraged to generate larger and more beneficial impacts in poorer economies and improve livelihoods at local and national levels. A central argument is that the so-called 'resource curse' - the potentially negative effect of resource booms on economies and societies - is not inevitable, as it is often said to be. Rather, much can be done through policy, coordinated government action in partnership with the private sector, and judicious investments to improve the prospects for resource wealth to make a positive contribution to escaping underdevelopment and poverty. Companies in the extractives industry have a key role in working with governments to achieve these goals.