Policy paper: Aligning critical mineral development in the Asia-Pacific region with the Sustainable Development Goals

The low-carbon energy transition will create significant demand for critical minerals. The extraction and processing of these minerals creates challenges for sustainable development, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, a major supplier and consumer of these inputs. Diverse supply chains in the world trade of critical raw materials mean fragmented and sometime insufficient approaches to align the extraction of critical raw materials with the Sustainable Development Goals, and accordingly, international cooperation must increase. This presents opportunities for the United Nations to do more to align the development of critical raw materials with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.