Governments all over the world are accelerating their implementation of measures to fulfill their obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”) and the Paris Agreement, as well as other international legal instruments. Meeting those targets as part of the energy transition necessarily will require increased mining of critical minerals. The exploration and exploitation of these critical minerals will give rise to disputes for several reasons:
- Governments all over the world are enacting protective measures over the critical minerals within their jurisdiction, changing “the rules of the game.”
- Increased scrutiny of environmental, social, and corporate governance (“ESG”) factors, especially by downstream participants because of requirements under new laws or for reputational reasons.
- Supply chain constraints as upstream participants compete over limited available resources of these critical minerals and new downstream entrants seek to use these critical minerals in novel ways.
