People’s rights must be at the center of the whole production and consumption chain. But how do we do this?
Reverse predatory trade, investment, and lending agreements that strip Global South countries of development and climate policy autonomy. Trade and Investment
Strengthen South–South cooperation to secure fairer terms of trade.
Trade agreements and strategic partnerships should enable producer countries, especially from the Global South, to capture greater value from their own resources. Policies on value addition must respond to the specific needs of each country and community, with support for context-specific and needed domestic energy transitions, green industrialisation, and climate adaptation (Fern, 2023).
Trade and investment frameworks must safeguard the right of producer countries to regulate resource extraction and direct development pathways according to national priorities. Agreements should contain binding human rights and environmental safeguards, clear benefit-sharing mechanisms, and accountability measures to ensure just and sustainable outcomes (Fern, 2023).
Trade arrangements and partnerships on critical minerals should expand, not restrict, the policy space of resource-rich countries.
Governments must be free to use fiscal and regulatory tools, such as export duties, tariffs, or restrictions, to promote domestic processing, protect local supply and revenues, and strengthen downstream industries.
Safeguard measures should also be available to shield emerging sectors from import surges and external shocks, while ensuring that regulated foreign investments contribute to national development through technology transfer, local content, joint ventures, employment, and research cooperation.
Investor privileges under mechanisms like the ISDS mechanism must be abolished to prevent corporations from undermining legitimate public-interest regulation. Governments should withdraw from treaties containing ISDS clauses or revoke consent to arbitration, particularly in negotiating mining concession agreements.
Advanced economies, particularly the US and EU, must end the use of the WTO and other dispute mechanisms to constrain Global South industrial and climate policies.
Southern national control over critical minerals must be upheld. Minerals should be processed domestically to advance democratic industrialisation, ecological sustainability, and community rights, transforming economies for people rather than profit or militarisation. Investment protection clauses that give corporations undue power over governments should be removed to ensure states can regulate their climate and resource sectors freely.
Investment regulation should include the designation of key sectors for public ownership (such as social services and raw materials), a review of foreign investment incentives like mining laws and special economic zones, explicit requirements for technology transfer and human rights compliance, a moratorium on profit repatriation, and, where necessary, the re-nationalisation of strategic sectors.
Repeal and stop implementing policy conditionalities and trade deals that lock countries into extractive economies and fossil fuel dependency. Trade agreements and partnerships must uphold high social and environmental standards, including Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination and free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), with strong supervisory bodies empowered to monitor compliance and enforce sanctions.
Suspend and abolish Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to eliminate patent monopolies on renewable energy technologies.
Adopt and expand renewable energy, including community-based systems (e.g., micro-hydro and microgrids), while maintaining policy space.
The energy sector should be publicly owned and democratically controlled to ensure an equitable transition.
Nationalise the mining industry to ensure rational extraction and use of countries’ mineral resources
Binding international and national rules must hold TNCs accountable for harmful activities, especially in extractives.
Ensure fair access to minerals and equitable transitions by allowing developing countries to process minerals domestically for local job creation, tax revenue generation, and real sustainable development.
New trade agreements should exclude investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses and intellectual property rules that limit climate measures.
Remove investment protection clauses that grant corporations undue power over governments, allowing states to regulate their climate and resource sectors freely.
Repeal and stop implementing policy conditionalities and unfair trade deals that lock countries into extractive economies and fossil fuel dependency.
Investment regulation should include:
Designation of certain sectors as public ownership-only (e.g., social services, raw materials).
Reviewing foreign investment incentives (e.g., mining laws, special economic zones).
Explicit requirements for technology transfers and human rights measures in foreign investments.
A moratorium on profit repatriation
Re-nationalisation of key sectors where necessary.
Governments should terminate investment treaties containing ISDS provisions or revoke their consent to arbitration, particularly when negotiating mining concession agreements.
