Natural Resources for Sustainable Development

Natural resources represent a potentially transformational opportunity to support development but are ultimately finite How do we make the most of them without destroying the planet? In this 12-week course, produced by the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and the World Bank, learn about efforts to sustainably manage extractive industry investments. You will come to understand the complex and interwoven aspects of natural resource governance and become part of a global movement of citizens and practitioners committed to harnessing the transformational impacts of our natural resources.

This course is for:

Sustainable development practitioners – as well as private-sector actors, such as those who work in corporate sustainability and responsibility or renewable energy – who need a historical context of the extractives industry and its evolution

Extractive practitioners, such as those who work in oil, gas and mining, who are interested in making the field more sustainable

Graduate students and advanced undergraduate students studying extractives, environmental science, environmental law, sustainable development, sustainable business and related fields

Climate change activists or practitioners looking to understand the balance of sustainable resource use and business investment

What you'll learn

• How countries translate natural resource wealth into sustainable development outcomes
• How governance of extractive industries impact long term economic development
• The policies necessary for the sustainable management of natural resource wealth
• Why communication between government, industry, and citizensis critical to sustainable natural resource management
• History of oil, gas, and mining
• Challenges& opportunities: oil, gas, and mining
• The decision chain of natural resource management (I)
• The decision chain of natural resource management (II)
• How natural resources shape and are shaped by political context
• Corruption trends in the extractive sector
• International governance
• Natural resources& the broader governance framework
• Transparency& accountability
• From oil well to car - market, players, and extraction process
• From mine to mobile phone - market, players, and extraction process
• How a company decides to invest
• Project development
• Evolving technology
• Legal& regulatory frameworks for extractive industries
• Allocation of rights
• Implementation& monitoring of legal frameworks
• International law& the extractive industries
• State-owned enterprises: Role and governance
• Resource economics& fiscal regime principles
• Fiscal instruments I: Royalty/tax systems
• Fiscal instruments II: Contract-based systems
• Fiscal regime implementation
• Environmental challenges and trends: oil and gas
• Environmental challenges and trends: mining
• Managing environmental challenges
• Extractives and climate change
• Environmental impact assessments
• Social impact and engagement
• Human rights and the mining industry
• Mining and vulnerable populations
• Company-community agreements
• Introduction to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)
• Challenges of ASM
• ASM and gender
• Tensions betweenASM and large-scale mining
• Theway forward
• Challenges of revenue management
• Policy responses: savings, spending, public debt, and earmarking
• Natural resource funds
• Revenue sharing and decentralization
• Introduction to economic linkages
• Local employment
• Local procurement
• Enabling tech transfer
• Downstream linkages
• Investing in investing
• Leveraging extractive industries for infrastructure
• Resource-for-infrastructure deals
• Political tripod and authorizing environment
• Engaging citizens
• Aligning extractive industries with theSDGs