Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105477
Luccas Assis Attílio
{"title":"Critical minerals: A new source of macroeconomic fluctuation?","authors":"Luccas Assis Attílio","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105477","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105477","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Energy transition involves the utilization of critical minerals. We investigate whether critical mineral (CM) prices (nickel, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth) contribute to macroeconomic fluctuations. Employing a GVAR with 34 economies from July 2012 to July 2023, our results reveal that most economies are sensitive to cobalt and lithium prices, suggesting these minerals could potentially induce a global recession accompanied by increasing inflation. Considering the predominant influence of oil prices, we compare the importance of oil and critical mineral prices in domestic fluctuations. Despite the potential for deep fluctuations caused by CM prices, our findings indicate that oil prices will maintain their position as a relevant global factor. Subsequently, we observed that oil prices affect critical mineral prices (but not vice versa). This suggests that oil and CM have a complex relationship marked by complementarities. To address the impact of Covid-19 on CM prices and the diminished importance of CM in the previous millennium, we adjusted our analysis period. The results remain robust to these modifications. Similar to oil and commodity prices, CM prices possess the potential to trigger international fluctuations and promote tensions in financial markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105477"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143100653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105476
Bohumil Frantál , Justyna M. Chodkowska-Miszczuk , Filip Alexandrescu , Franziska Stölzel , Petr Klusáček , Ondřej Konečný , Diana Süsser , Agata Lewandowska , Dominik Zieliński
{"title":"With coal forever? Conflicted attitudes of residents in coal mining areas in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland to coal phase-out","authors":"Bohumil Frantál , Justyna M. Chodkowska-Miszczuk , Filip Alexandrescu , Franziska Stölzel , Petr Klusáček , Ondřej Konečný , Diana Süsser , Agata Lewandowska , Dominik Zieliński","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105476","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105476","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The paper presents results of an international comparative survey with local communities living in three coal mining areas in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland. The survey attempted to answer the questions to what extent do the perceptions of negative impacts and threats of coal mining, the attitudes towards coal mining and preferences for the pace of coal phase-out differ between the study areas and which factors significantly affect them. The survey focused on residents living in municipalities near active open-cast mines, who have personal experience with both the impacts of mining on the living environment and the effects of the closure of mines on the socio-economic situation in their regions. We found out a high degree of variance in perceptions and attitudes between areas but also within areas (between municipalities and specific groups of people). The results show that residents in coal mining areas hold complex and conflicted attitudes towards coal which are affected by specific geographical conditions, the extent of landscape impacts, and people’s relationships with places, communities, and the coal industry. The significant predictors of attitudes to coal proved to be perceptions of negative environmental impacts of mining, work relationship with coal industry, age, and gender, however, these factors have different significance in various local contexts. With this paper we offer a comparative local-level approach to the just transition as a process that is far from disembodied but instead is tied to specific landscapes and places.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105476"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143156893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105484
Li Yu , Ning Jia , Mo Li
{"title":"Lessons of eco-transition of a rural small town: The case of Manzhuang China from raw material processing industries to a circular economy","authors":"Li Yu , Ning Jia , Mo Li","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105484","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105484","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Eco-transition has been a national priority policy in China. However, underdeveloped areas, such as small towns in rural areas, may face challenges in pursuing this policy due to a shortage of resources and externalities. This research, based on ecological modernisation theory, carried out a case study of <em>Manzhuang</em>, China, to explore how comparatively underdeveloped areas cope with the requirement of eco-transition to a circular economy from raw material processing industries. The research found that eco-transition guided by the concept of eco-modernisation requires integrated social, institutional, technological, and various sub-systems transformation as a whole. It is also necessary to take into account changes in the market. It is not enough to consider the improvement of technology alone. The research also showed that the socio-economic bottleneck relating to middle-stage industrialisation and fierce regional competition for investment has led to a dilemma in implementing such a policy agenda. This situation is particularly acute in underdeveloped areas. It is argued in the research that the local application of a circular economy as a means of implementing sustainable development may lose its significance without macroeconomic restructuring and regional coordination if it is to be achieved in comparatively underdeveloped areas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105484"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143100652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105464
Jubril Animashaun , Lotanna E. Emediegwu
{"title":"Is there a subnational resource curse? Evidence from households in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria","authors":"Jubril Animashaun , Lotanna E. Emediegwu","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105464","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105464","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous evidence suggests that mining-based extractive sectors have a net positive effect on local economies, further improving the local population’s living standards. In contrast to artisanal mining, we argue that hydrocarbon-based industries can have ambiguous implications on demand in sectors that will enhance local welfare. Using annual household data from the Niger Delta between 2010 and 2016, we utilize a combination of fixed effects and difference-in-differences, triple—differences (DDD), and treatment boundaries in oil production and households’ locations to produce unbiased estimates. Estimating at a subnational level allows us to exploit variation within a country, control for more potential sources of estimation bias, and measure the impact of compositional changes on households’ expenditures. We find that costs of living are higher by proximity to oil fields, but the mechanism is via the vicinity preferences for education. We find inconclusive evidence on other welfare indicators; limited employment opportunities and rent-seeking environment may explain the weak backward linkages and potential positive spillovers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105464"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143156894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105462
Abraham Deka, Chioma Christiana Efe-Onakpojeruo, Huseyin Ozdeser
{"title":"Capitalizing on technological innovations and natural resources rent in alleviating ecological footprint in the Sub-Saharan African countries","authors":"Abraham Deka, Chioma Christiana Efe-Onakpojeruo, Huseyin Ozdeser","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105462","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105462","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Environmental degradation has been and is still a cause of concern in the world, and the Sub-Saharan African Countries (SSAC) are not exceptional. This research seeks to examine the role of technological innovations (in the form of patents) and natural resources rent (NRR) in alleviating the damage presented on the environment by human activities. To attain the goal of this research, the STIRPAT model is adopted, taking into account the patterns of energy consumption, and environmental sustainability policies. The combined time series data of all SSAC is used, for the period 1990 to 2022. The contemporary Non-linear Autoregressive Distributive Lag (NARDL) method is used to analyse data of the present research model. The NARDL method presents the short and long run estimation findings; hence, the existence of asymmetric effects on the dependent variable is ascertained. The key findings of the research show that renewable energy (RE), environmental sustainability policies, non-renewable energy (NRE) and NRR presence significant negative effects on ecological footprint (EFP). Positive shocks of NRR reduces the EFP in the SSAC, both in the short and long run, while the negative shocks do not significantly affect EFP. Economic growth exhibit significant positive symmetric effects on EFP in the SSAC. Policies meant to enhance environmental quality in the SSAC are presented in this research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105462"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143100196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105460
Jean-François Rousseau
{"title":"The transient sand frontier: Senegal's moving sand procurement strategies","authors":"Jean-François Rousseau","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105460","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105460","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article probes the causes and implications from the displacement of construction sand procurement strategies from coastal areas to inland sand dune ecosystems in Senegal. It retraces how the gradual implementation of a beach sand mining ban triggered a transient sand frontier process in sand dune ecosystems that now sustain rising sand needs driven by rapid urbanisation in the coastal cities of Dakar and Saint-Louis. Vertical and horizontal limits to sand quarrying in the sand dunes lead to the extractive frontier constantly moving farther away from urban and periurban sand consumption sites. The resulting transient frontier process complements documented sand frontier scenarios where spatial extension, or commodity widening, combines with intensifying extractivism, or commodity deepening. In coastal Senegal, spatial extension rather proceeds in tandem with frontier closure. The sand transient frontier yields sand supply and price pressures that create challenges to Senegal development ambitions, most specifically those that entail the expansion of the concrete dependent affordable and premium city models. The development minerals agenda has so far proved insufficient to yield the discursive shift required for elevating sand supply as key to the achievement of development programs in Senegal. Connecting sand, the development minerals and the ‘strategic’ or ‘critical’ minerals agendas could help elevate sand supply-related challenges among policymakers' priorities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105460"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143100657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105466
Noran Abd El Nasser, Dalia M. Ibrahiem, Rasha Sameh
{"title":"The nexus between the dependence on natural resources and environmental sustainability: Does institutional matter?","authors":"Noran Abd El Nasser, Dalia M. Ibrahiem, Rasha Sameh","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105466","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105466","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rapid increases in production and consumption associated with high growth levels have led to a significant rise in ecological challenges, including climate change and the exhaustion of natural resources (NRs). NRs have an encouraging effect on the economic progress of many emerging and developing economies; however, these countries may lack resource sustainability owing to deficient natural resource management and low institutional quality (IQ). In this sense, this study aims to investigate the relationship between excessive natural resource dependence (NRD) and environmental sustainability (ES) considering the presence of IQ, human progress, population growth (POP), renewable energy use (REN), urbanization (URB), foreign direct investment (FDI), and economic growth (EG). It applies country and time Fixed-effects (FE) panel data models to unbalanced panel data of 86 countries from emerging market and middle-income economies (EMMIEs) for the main purpose of analysis. The results reveal that natural resource rent, GDP per capita, human development index (HDI), and URB adversely affect ES, using carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions per capita and ecological footprint (EF) as dependent variables. In contrast, FDI, IQ, and REN variables have a promising effect on the environment. When the disaggregated impact of natural resource rents on ES is analyzed, the findings indicate that oil rents have a significant positive outcome on both CO<sub>2</sub> per capita and EF. On the contrary, forest rent and mineral rent are concluded to have insignificant effects on ES. The investigation highlights a need for reduced dependence on NRs, strengthening environmental regulations, and a transition to renewable energy sources due to their affordability and potential to reduce the extensive use of non-renewable resources. FDI is strongly recommended as an alternative avenue for EG in EMMIEs due to its positive externalities' effects on ES.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105466"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143156895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105461
Danilo Borja, Conny Davidsen
{"title":"\"Like an abandoned son\": Clientelism, assistentialism, and state failure in Amazon oil benefit sharing policies","authors":"Danilo Borja, Conny Davidsen","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105461","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105461","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Local benefit sharing is a highly relevant and unresolved topic in natural resources policy and research. This study examines local <em>de facto</em> outcomes of Ecuador's 2010 hydrocarbon policy reform in which the state legally assumed welfare responsibilities of communities affected by oil drilling, a role that oil companies had prior occupied in the country's emerging oil boom.</div><div>Using political ecology lenses, this paper reveals how local clientelist and assistentialist relationships between oil companies and Indigenous Waorani communities have predominated in the region and affected the intended outcomes of the policy reform. These political dynamics enabled <em>de facto</em> arrangements of benefit sharing, wherein Waorani actors received continuing benefits from oil companies despite the reform's formal cancelling of these provisions. Moreover, the study shows how clientelist relationships continued through the state's policy reform as the state also failed to fulfill its reform promise to provide benefits at the local level.</div><div>Drawing on an extended empirical fieldwork data set of interviews, document reviews, and participant observation at local, regional, and national levels, the case study illustrates local realities of extractive policy implementation in the Yasuni Amazon rainforest, which offers valuable empirical lessons on unintended <em>de facto</em> outcomes of benefit-sharing policy efforts at the intersection of resource extractive conflicts, Indigenous interests, and conservation goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105461"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143100195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105486
Adrián Saldarriaga-Isaza , Fernando Flórez-Herrera , Marcela Ibáñez-Diaz
{"title":"Gold mining and social accountability: An empirical approach in Colombia","authors":"Adrián Saldarriaga-Isaza , Fernando Flórez-Herrera , Marcela Ibáñez-Diaz","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105486","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105486","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper aims to understand the impact of potential gold mining on social accountability. By using the Mediation Analysis method, we have developed an impact evaluation for a region of Colombia, through an empirical strategy that allows for the comparison of municipalities with and without potential gold mining. Our model's estimation considered two set of indicators: social accountability and social capital, which underwent Principal Component Analysis. We found that potential gold mining has a positive effect on social accountability, meaning that in municipalities with gold mining potential there is a greater use of participation tools, surveillance and control mechanisms by the local community. This effect is mediated by social capital, i.e., social capital causes the population of gold mining municipalities to implement social accountability. Some policy recommendations and conclusions are presented below.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105486"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143100199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Resources PolicyPub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105463
Iddo K. Wernick
{"title":"Is America dematerializing? Trends and tradeoffs in historic demand for one hundred commodities in the United States","authors":"Iddo K. Wernick","doi":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105463","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.resourpol.2025.105463","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We introduce a broad yet detailed data framework to assess the physical basis of modern industrial societies based on trends in their commodity demand. Using the example of the United States from 1900 to 2020, we consider both absolute commodity demand (ABS) and demand indexed to economic activity, otherwise known as intensity of use (IOU), for one hundred commodities that constitute the bulk of the material entering the US economy annually. The commodities selected are generally raw materials that enter the economy as industrial inputs that are further processed and incorporated into intermediate and finished products. The data show that ABS for nearly all the 100 commodities rose steadily until 1970 with IOU consistently rising for many as well. After that time, the trends for different groups of commodities start to diverge. Comparing ABS and IOU for the years 1970 and 2020 brings into focus the divergent trends. We find that for many metals and mineral commodities, domestic consumption fell over the last half century, though much of this missing consumption may represent production displaced to other locations. For a larger cross section of commodities, consumption grew but more slowly than the rest of the economy, as per capita consumption for many basic industrial and consumer commodities remained roughly steady. For a small group of commodities, including technology metals, consumption grew faster than the rest of the economy between 1970 and 2020. By examining a large range of commodities over time, we develop a disaggregated framework for more rigorously assessing whether contemporary industrial societies are dematerializing, that is, reducing the amount of physical material necessary for their economies to function. Though restricted to the United States, this study has relevance to other countries around the world in elucidating the underlying physical basis of modern economies with implications for environmental quality, economic competitiveness, and national security.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20970,"journal":{"name":"Resources Policy","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 105463"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143100655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}