Institutional capacity and sustainable critical raw material supply chains: A comparative analysis of extractive governance

Abstract

Critical raw materials (CRMs) are essential to the green and digital transitions, underpinning technologies such as renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, and advanced manufacturing. As demand increases, governments increasingly pursue policy objectives related to security of supply, diversification, sustainability, and innovation and circularity. While these objectives are often treated as distinct policy goals, their achievement depends on the institutional governance conditions through which CRM supply chains are organised. This article examines how institutional governance conditions shape the resilience and sustainability of CRM supply chains across different governance contexts. Drawing on Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) and the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), it employs a qualitative comparative legal and institutional analysis of Australia (lithium), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (cobalt), Canada (nickel), Chile (copper), and the European Union under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The analysis demonstrates that legal and regulatory frameworks, administrative capacity and coordination, rights-based safeguards, and environmental governance operate collectively to shape resilient and sustainable CRM supply chains. The findings show that supply chain resilience depends less on resource endowment than on institutional governance conditions capable of providing regulatory predictability, procedural legitimacy, and long-term environmental stewardship. The study contributes by reframing security of supply, diversification, sustainability, and innovation and circularity as system-level governance outcomes rather than independent policy objectives.