This new Sourcebook admirably illuminates the spectrum of integrated policy interventions necessary to transform natu ral resource wealth into sustainable development, ranging from the allocation of resource extraction rights to the use and distribution of revenues. It recognizes and emphasizes the importance of the political and institutional context. The Sourcebook ably breaks down the implications of the type of natural resource, describes the organization of the indus try, and provides illustrative examples and useful citations from the literature. This work is especially timely. In September 2015, the world’s governments adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), defining the world’s shared agenda for sustainable development through 2030. Readers of this Sourcebook will no doubt note that mineral and energy resources play a major role across the 17 SDGs, and that the SDGs offer a crucial orientation to the mining sector. First, sustainable development depends on the minerals mined from the earth. The development and rapid scale-up and deployment of renewable energies will further increase demand for a variety of minerals and metals. So too will the ubiquitous mobile Internet technologies, which utilize a range of mineral products to enable our new global infor mation society. Second, for mineral-rich countries, the rents generated from the extraction of their resources can fund public investments in health, education, infrastructure, and other public goods that are critical for the achievement of the SDGs. Strategic linkages from the extractive sectors to other sectors of the economy can also help to advance employ ment and innovation. Third, the management of the extractive sector, and the policies and practices of both governments and their private sector partners, determine the impacts of the extractive pro cesses on air and water quality, biodiversity, gender-based and other forms of inequality, public health, and human rights. In the past, extractive industries have often damaged the environment, created social tensions, and contributed to poor governance through bribery, capital flight, and the waste of resource rents. The SDGs provide key guideposts for sustainable management of extractive resources in relation to both people (with regard to inclusive processes and access to information, for instance) and the environment. Fourth, SDG 13—to take urgent action to combat cli mate change and its impacts—will require a deep and rapid shift in how the world approaches its hydrocarbon resources. Known reserves of coal, oil, and gas greatly exceed the levels that can be burned in line with the Paris Climate Goal (part of SDG 13) of keeping global warming “well below 2 degrees C.” The world must therefore make a quick transi tion to low-carbon energy and create effective and fair mechanisms to share the adjustment burden. How will we handle the global challenge of which assets to strand, paying particular attention to the needs of developing countries? How individual governments, companies, and the world as a whole approach the management and gover nance of mineral and energy resources will be important in determining the success or failure of the SDGs. And yet, the complexities of harnessing natural resources for sus tainable development are great. Technical solutions are complex and highly context specific; the political chal lenges are vast and made difficult by geopolitics and a tendency toward short-termism. Many of the social and xi FOREWORD xii FOREWORD environmental risks are large, difficult to calculate, and perhaps irreversible in impact. Fortunately, the past decade has seen a groundswell of research and debate about how best to put natural resource wealth at the service of sustainable development. The SDGs have brought together governments, the private sector, civil society, and academia in thoughtful and productive discus sions about how to ensure that mineral and energy resources help to advance the SDGs, and about the respective roles of each partner, nationally and globally. To support these ongoing discussions, the authors of this Sourcebook have taken the critical step of beginning to assem ble a knowledge consortium, bringing together research institutions from around the world to share research on good practice and to mobilize expertise to address remaining and new “knowledge gaps.” Indeed, several of the topics covered in the pages herein are controversial, and we and others will not agree with all of the positions taken. In some cases, the controversy is made explicit; in others, the controversy is only implicit, and will be clarified by subsequent debate. The rap idly evolving nature of this field also means that some critical topics, such as the implications of climate change for the future of hydrocarbon extraction, are not yet deeply explored. No doubt the Sourcebook will continue to evolve as the debates over these topics intensify in the future. Given the breadth of the SDGs and the targets therein, as well as the myriad challenges of natural resource gover nance, the new Sourcebook and the community of research ers and practitioners that continues to grow around it will help to shed light on the path ahead. Our work in achieving the SDGs is ongoing, and the Sourcebook will be an impor tant new tool in our hands.