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CCSI strongly supports the transparency of contracts and tax flows. CCSI shares the belief of many stakeholders that transparency is essential to leverage extractive industries for sustainable development and is in the mutual interest of all stakeholders. However, some industry players continue to voice the concern that increased transparency would be harmful for their business. Therefore, CCSI is working to also establish the business case for transparency. In one such case, some industry players have been lobbying against the regulations developed by the Security and Exchange Commission to implement the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; section 1504 of that act requires all US listed companies to report detailed payments to governments on a project-by-project basis in all countries of operation. To support the SEC's mandate in implementing the regulations, and to respond to some of the concerns of industry, CCSI identified the publicly listed extractive industry companies that disclose tax payments on a country-by-country basis and showed the correlation of this reporting practice with both higher financial performance and fewer reported incidences of human and environmental rights violations in the communities where they operate. This paper presents the complete findings of the analysis.

The World Bank estimates that African investment needs in infrastructure would cost US$93 billion per year, only half of which is for the power sector. In the same time, the availability of power lies at the core of a mine's development strategy; mining operators need to make sure that the energy demand of mining operations is met. This is especially the case in remote areas, where mining companies are developing large projects with little or no connectivity to national grids and very limited options for electricity supply. To address these energy problems, the mining industry has adopted different solutions depending on the power situation of the country, the projects' energy demand, and the projects' distance from the grid: When sourcing from the grid is too expensive or when there is no grid, industry finances and builds its own power generation facilities or sources from a third-party that is a private power generator. When sourcing from the grid is less expensive than own generation, industry either sources from the grid or finances/co-finances the upgrade of the power assets under various arrangements with the public utility. For a mining company, the goal is to maximize cost-savings. For a host country, the challenge is to maximize welfare gains by leveraging any investment in power infrastructure development for the electrification needs of the country. This could be through connecting the mine to the grid and incentivizing the company to produce extra capacity to sell to the public utility in order to increase supply and reduce the electricity cost, or by requiring that the privately-financed network is open to third-party access, so that towns and populations between the mine and the grid benefit from the privately financed distribution lines as well. Both, cost savings and welfare gains can be met simultaneously if sound regulations and efficient coordination mechanisms are in place. Without appropriate regulation, the opportunity for the country will be missed. Without appropriate coordination mechanisms within the mining industry or between the industry and the government, scale economies will be lost. Therefore to take advantage of the opportunity of the investments of the mining industry in power infrastructure, and make sure that the country benefits from those investments, an appropriate planning, regulatory and commercial framework is needed. If power assets are leveraged and designed to contribute to the development of public infrastructure at the national, regional or community levels, the incremental capital cost of building additional capacity could be reduced and the economic and social spillover effects can extend far beyond the mining sector. The purpose of this working paper is to distill good practice principles observed in power infrastructure development leveraging the mining industry's energy demand around the world, informed by expert opinion.

We present a two-part study, the purpose of which is to highlight that new disclosure initiatives such as oil and mineral tax payment disclosure as mandated under the Transparency Amendment and as about to be mandated by the European Union, have a place in the investment world and an impact on investment decisions. The study identifies the listed companies that integrate the principle of disclosure of tax payments on a country-by-country basis into their reporting activity and measures their financial performance as well as their performance with respect to human and environmental protection rights of the communities where they interact. This second type of performance is important from the investors' point of view since it is intimately related to political risk and the 'social license to operate'.

CCSI strongly supports the transparency of contracts and tax flows. CCSI shares the belief of many stakeholders that transparency is essential to leverage extractive industries for sustainable development and is in the mutual interest of all stakeholders. However, some industry players continue to voice the concern that increased transparency would be harmful for their business. Therefore, CCSI is working to also establish the business case for transparency. In one such case, some industry players have been lobbying against the regulations developed by the Security and Exchange Commission to implement the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; section 1504 of that act requires all US listed companies to report detailed payments to governments on a project-by-project basis in all countries of operation. To support the SEC's mandate in implementing the regulations, and to respond to some of the concerns of industry, CCSI identified the publicly listed extractive industry companies that disclose tax payments on a country-by-country basis and showed the correlation of this reporting practice with both higher financial performance and fewer reported incidences of human and environmental rights violations in the communities where they operate. In December 2011, these results were submitted to the US Securities & Exchange Commission to inform the regulatory deliberations of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. As implementation regulations of Section 1504 were still pending as of October 2015, CCSI consulted with the Publish What You Pay Network and a number of investors and submitted a second letter to the US Securities Exchange Commission. Recognizing the SEC's mandate to protect investors, this letter provides 7 reasons why it is of utmost importance to maintain company-specific, project-level payment disclosure when issuing the new rules of Section 1504 in order to create improved efficiency in the capital markets. In November 2017, CCSI submitted the same argument to the UK government as they reviewed the UK extractive sector transparency law.

Focusing on supporting "reformers" - those with a genuine commitment to reforms - is a way of trying to start on auspicious footing by targeting those with an existing interest in seeing good governance of extractive industries take root. While providing resources to bolster the technical capacity of these actors will be a critical aspect of their prospects for success, another is helping them to more effectively interact with their political contexts. Indeed, for the potential of reformers to drive and sustain relevant policy and institutional changes to be realized, the incentive and power dynamics that can impede these actors must be better understood and more effectively addressed. CCSI has been carrying out research on some of the main political challenges facing actors within governments committed to advancing governance reforms for the extractive industries in their countries and developing ideas for how these might be addressed more effectively. To read some of the highlights of this work, please see the think piece, Unlocking the Power of Reformers to Achieve Better Progress on Extractives Governance. Key findings are also summarized in this presentation.

Meaningful progress on improving the governance of extractive industries requires actors who have a strong interest in bringing this progress about, "reformers", and who have the power to do so. However, reformers in government often face an uphill battle that can involve major personal, professional and political risks coming from powerful actors who have an interest in maintaining the status quo. To address these risks and help improve the prospects of reformers driving real change on the ground, CCSI has been exploring opportunities for global actors working on EI governance to play a more active role in Empowering and Incentivizing Reformers. In a new think piece, Unlocking the Power of Reformers to Achieve Better Progress on Extractives Governance, we share some key findings on the political challenges facing reformers and ideas for more actively supporting them in addressing these. This piece draws on the input of dozens of experts, including numerous past and present government officials, working on EI governance as well as on insights derived from CCSI's broader activities focused on the Politics of Extractive Industries.

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, adopted in 2015 and ratified or acceded to by 192 states and the European Union (EU), marked a historic turning point on global climate action. Achieving the agreement's goal of limiting global warming to not more than 1.5 °C relative to the industrial era (1880-1900) will require a transformation of global energy systems, with the active participation and contribution of all actors in the economy. Many companies have pledged to reach net-zero direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. This report analyzes such pledges by 35 companies across seven industries – oil and gas, mining, chemicals, utilities, cement, steel, and food processing – that jointly represent 64% of global GHG emissions on a direct emissions (scope 1) basis. To examine how industry giants incorporate climate considerations into their business plans, this analysis considers companies that are ranked within the top ten of their sectors based on market capitalization. In addition, the analysis focused on companies that have publicly available net-zero pledges or other climate targets that provide insights into their future decarbonization plans.

At the request of the Colombian Government and with the support of GIZ, CCSI prepared a policy brief focused on linkages from the mining sector in Colombia. The brief gives an overview of existing regulatory requirements, government policies and company programs to foster economic and infrastructure linkages. Based on the findings, the brief provides suggestions for next steps if the government is to develop a more comprehensive linkage creation program.

Access to affordable and reliable energy is key for the mining sector and with rising demand for minerals and falling ore grades, energy demand is estimated to increase by 36% by 2035. Today, energy produced and procured by mining companies is mostly fossil fuel based. This will have to change if the sector is to contribute to the decarbonization of the world economy, needed for countries to meet the target adopted at the Paris Agreement of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. At the same time, the costs of solar, wind and battery storage systems have been falling at an unprecedented scale, which has encouraged an increasing number of mining companies to test these technologies at their mine sites. The Renewable Power of the Mine report, launched at the Energy and Mines World Congress in Toronto and prepared with the support from the German Cooperation, is the most comprehensive study to date on how the sector has been integrating renewables in their mining operations, the roadblocks that still exist, and the future trends that are likely to further drive the roll-out of renewables to supply electricity to mine sites. 38 case studies are included to highlight practical examples and lessons learned. Recommendations to address the outstanding roadblocks are included for governments, mining companies, independent power producers and donors.

Access to affordable and reliable energy is key for the mining sector and with rising demand for minerals and falling ore grades, energy demand is estimated to increase by 36% by 2035. Today, energy produced and procured by mining companies is mostly fossil fuel based. This will have to change if the sector is to contribute to the decarbonization of the world economy, needed for countries to meet the target adopted at the Paris Agreement of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. At the same time, the costs of solar, wind and battery storage systems have been falling at an unprecedented scale, which has encouraged an increasing number of mining companies to test these technologies at their mine sites. The Renewable Power of the Mine report is the most comprehensive study to date on how the sector has been integrating renewables in their mining operations, the roadblocks that still exist, and the future trends that are likely to further drive the roll-out of renewables to supply electricity to mine sites. 38 case studies are included to highlight practical examples and lessons learned. Recommendations to address the outstanding roadblocks are included for governments, mining companies, independent power producers and donors.