Breaking the Barriers: Regional Integration for a Just and Competitive Energy Transition

The global energy transition offers a historic chance for resource-rich nations in the Global South. Instead of just supplying the rest of the world with the crucial minerals needed for this shift, they can leverage these resources to power their own development and shape their own futures.

However, a major roadblock stands in their way: the current international economic system. Bilateral investment treaties, free trade agreements, and even new critical minerals deals often work against these nations. They can divide producer regions, trap countries in a cycle of raw material exports, and limit the policy decisions needed to advance their own industrial, energy, and climate goals.

This panel explored a promising solution: regional integration. Our panelists highlighted how, by collaborating at the regional level, Global South countries can break free from a purely extractive model and build diverse, competitive economies that benefit their people for generations to come. We also encouraged attendees to share their own perspectives and ideas to overcome trade barriers and foster a just transition in resource-rich countries.

Panelists

• Chantal Line Carpentier, Head of the Trade, Environment, Climate change, and Sustainable Development Branch of UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Division on International Trade and Commodities (DITC)
• Iza Camarillo, Research Director for Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen
• Ketakandriana Rafitoson, Executive Director, Resource Justice Network (ex-Publish What You Pay)
• Martin Dietrich Brauch, Lead Researcher, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI)

Facilitator: Martin Dietrich Brauch

Regional integration changes the equation. Acting collectively provides four key benefits:

• Policy Space: Integrated regions can defend states’ right to regulate, ensuring governments have the freedom to set industrial, energy, and climate policies without fear of triggering costly ISDS disputes or sanctions.
• Competitiveness: Shared markets, infrastructure, and innovation deliver economies of scale, making regional industries more efficient and globally competitive in supplying low-carbon products.
• Value Addition: Regional value chains create opportunities to process resources locally, develop low-carbon and sustainable industries, and generate jobs and skills—offering a real alternative to the extractive export model.
• Collective Power: Together, countries have more leverage to resist harmful bilateral trade and investment deals, negotiate fairer terms, and reform global rules that otherwise tilt against resource-rich regions.

This panel explored how resource-rich Global South countries can leverage regional integration to:

• Build integrated renewable energy systems and mineral value chains that maximize competitiveness and value addition.
• Reduce exposure to fragmented agreements and disputes.
• Coordinate trade and industrial strategies to enhance bargaining power.
• Drive multilateral reform of international trade and investment rules to safeguard policy space at both the national and regional levels.
• Chart pathways to sovereignty, prosperity, and climate justice, offering an alternative to extractive dependency and legal vulnerability.