CECHAP Participates in International Event on Natural Resource Governance and Energy Transition
From July 7 to 9, 2025, the international seminar “Governance, Participation, and Responsible Mining in the Energy and Ecological Transition” was held in Santiago de Chile, Chile. The event was organized by Transparency International Australia (TI) and the NGO Chile Transparente. It brought together representatives from TI chapters in Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, as well as government, industry, academia, and civil society organizations, to discuss how to promote a just energy transition with a focus on responsible natural resource governance. The Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CECHAP) participated through its director, Professor Cynthia Sanborn, and researcher Kehan Wang.
On July 8, both participated in a workshop alongside other international experts, where they shared knowledge on Chinese mining investments in diverse contexts and explored future paths for collaboration under TI’s global initiatives, such as the Accountable Mining Programme and the China Global Program.
On July 9, during the public event of the seminar, Cynthia Sanborn was a panelist in the session “The Role of International Investors and Mining Companies in the Energy Transition,” where she discussed mining governance standards in Latin America and the challenges of proper implementation. She also reflected on how Latin American states can strengthen their regulatory frameworks to ensure greater transparency and respect for community rights amid the growing demand for minerals linked to the energy transition.
During the same event, Kehan Wang participated as a panelist in the session “Gender Equality and the Energy Transition,” where he shared findings from his research on relationships between mining companies and local communities, highlighting how extractive projects with foreign investment impact men and women differently. He pointed out the persistent gaps in corporate policies regarding gender approaches and proposed measures to better integrate a gender perspective in mineral and renewable energy supply chains.
As part of her agenda in Santiago de Chile, Sanborn and Wang also visited the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where she held institutional meetings with the Vice President for Research, Dr. María Montt, and other researchers from the Millennium Nucleus on the Impacts of China in Latin America (ICLAC), with whom CECHAP has been collaborating for several years.
CECHAP’s participation in this event reaffirms its commitment to the critical analysis of China–Latin America relations and its contribution to key debates on governance, sustainability, and a just energy transition.
