Introduction: The Global and Local Governance of Extractive Resources

The global governance of extractive resources has largely been shaped by the energy-security agenda of industrialized countries. It is patchy and does not properly address the specific concerns of producer, consumer, and transit countries. Rising demand coincides with a looming peak of oil production and climate change. This requires urgent and resolute collective action, which is hampered by a disconnect between geological and political temporality and realities. Extractive industries, investors, civil society, international organizations, and consumer countries can jointly provide significant political and market incentives to avert the resource curse in resource-rich, but weak states. This calls for an appropriate institutionalization of voluntary multistakeholder initiatives with greater engagement on the part of emerging economies.