Mining is indispensable to modern life, underpinning up to 45% of the global economy and critical for delivering the energy transition. Yet the sector faces mounting challenges — from environmental and social harm to poor governance and conflict.
At the same time, demand for transition minerals continues to soar: the IEA estimates demand will triple by 2050, and the independent analyst’s Benchmark Minerals warns that meeting battery demand alone could require 300 new mines, with projects taking nearly two decades to come online.
Without systemic change, the sector risks failing to deliver what economies, societies, and the climate transition urgently require.
The Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030, a global multi-stakeholder body chaired by the Church of England Pensions Board, has set out to not only understand the challenges to the sector but the key role that investors and finance play in shaping how it is today and to identify what would need to be done differently for the sector to be the best it can be.
The Commission’s first output was the Landscape Report (2024) which mapped the scale of demand, the risks of inaction, and the levers investors and stakeholders can use to drive change.
Download the Mining 2030 Landscape Report
Strategic objectives for transformation
Mining 2030 is focused on creating conditions for responsible mining as the norm by 2030. The Commission has identified six objectives where investors can play a pivotal role:
- Align investor expectations of companies with global mining standards.
- Push demand-side companies to embrace traceability and circularity.
- Support regulation that reinforces responsible practices.
- Ensure mining delivers fair and sustained benefits for local communities and economies.
- Reduce mining-related conflict and address its root causes.
- Tackle historic legacies while building positive ones for the future.
Why investors matter
The future of mining – and with it, the global energy transition – depends on how the sector meets these challenges. Investors have the leverage to set expectations, demand accountability, and support the shift towards sustainable, equitable, and transparent practices.
Through Mining 2030, investors are once again at the centre of shaping systemic change – ensuring that the minerals critical to the future are produced responsibly, fairly, and sustainably.
Visit the Mining 2030 website
Mining 2030 is a collaborative investor-led initiative seeking to define a vision for a socially and environmentally responsible mining sector overall by 2030, and to develop a consensus about the role of finance in realising this vision.
