Promoting Sustainability through Inclusive Resource Management: The Role of UNFC and Intergenerational Action

The promotion of accessible knowledge and better understanding of raw materials extraction and management is a crucial step towards ensuring sustainable resource management across industries and nations. Intergenerational equity can only be achieved through the inclusion of public stakeholders, including the youth, in decision-making processes and implementation of standards and practices in the industry.

Resource classification tools like CRIRSCO dominated the minerals industry in the past, providing information mainly accessible to geoscientists trained to interpret the assessments and investors. But as the public is an important stakeholder of the global environment, it is important to create an all-inclusive system that can be used by everyone. Thus, standards that cater to investors only do not serve the broader purpose of promoting sustainable resource management. The UNFC classification and UNRM provide easily digestible information that allows non-experts to compare national resources, their implications on the economy, society, and the environment, that, unlike other standards, don’t vary from industry to industry and country to country. However, many questions about the implementation of UNFC are still to be answered. How do we strengthen the UNFC to equitably involve non-experts and future generations from various sectors and industries? And how can a policy implementation, that ensures environmental, social and intergenerational equity be ensured? This proposed talk combines perspectives of industry, government, academia, and NGOs, and provides a rounded discussion on how we demystify, heighten social awareness, and encourage intergenerational action around the UNFC and towards sustainable resource management by and for all.