In 2023, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) celebrates the 20th anniversary of its founding and the 10th anniversary of the EITI Standard. The EITI’s mandate to ensure that citizens benefit from a country’s natural resources remains extremely relevant in an era of escalating climate crisis. The role that EITI plays in the governance of the extractive sector is critical as we move forward with the updated EITI Standard.

Part 1 of the EITI Standard consists of the following sections:

1. The EITI Standard has its origins in the EITI Principles, which were agreed upon by a diverse group of countries, companies and civil society organizations when the EITI was established in 2003. The goal is to increase the transparency of payments and revenues in the extractive sector;
2. The procedure for obtaining the status of an EITI implementing country; 
3. The EITI Standard sets out the EITI requirements (Requirements 1-7) for EITI implementing countries and oil, gas and extractive companies operating in these countries; 
4. Expectations for companies that support the EITI by reporting in EITI implementing countries and actively participating in the EITI process through participation in multi-stakeholder groups; 
5. Contains provisions to ensure full, active and effective engagement of civil society in EITI implementation; 
6. Code of Conduct of the EITI Association; 
7. Promoting open and accountable management of natural resources. 

Part 2 of the EITI Standard (“Oversight and Validation by the EITI Board”) describes the procedures and criteria for determining the international EITI Board that oversees and evaluates the implementation of the EITI Standard. 

Part 3 (“EITI Governance and Management”) is dedicated to the governance of the EITI Association.

The 2023 edition is the fourth since the EITI Standard was published in 2013.  Currently, there are almost 60 countries implementing EITI.

This edition contains new and clarified provisions:

1. Anti-corruption activities

• Empowerment of countries and companies to use the EITI platform to identify and eliminate corruption risks in the field of natural resources extraction, disclosure of information on anti-corruption policies and practices by companies (requirements 1.2 and 2.6);
• Comparison of data in license registers and shareholder registers to improve the usability of data (requirement 2.3);
• Disclosure of the full ownership and reporting structure of state-owned enterprises and beneficial owners (requirement 2.5)

2. Energy transition

• Disclosure of information on the energy transition policy, tariff calculation, state subsidies in the extractive sector (requirement 2.1);
• Increase transparency in the issuance of licenses (requirement 2.2); 
• Obtaining information on investments of state-owned enterprises in the extractive sector and disclosure of data on proven economically viable reserves of oil, gas or mineral resources (requirements 2.6, 3.1);
• Disclosure of data on proven reserves and greenhouse gas emissions (requirement 3.4);
• Accounting for projected revenues and pricing scenarios (requirement 5.3)

3. Gender, social and environmental aspects 

• Disclosure of policies governing artisanal and small-scale mining (requirement 2.1);
• If the process of issuing or transferring a license involves consultation with affected communities, countries and companies implementing the project should provide a description of how the consultation process was conducted. This may include the number of people consulted, disaggregated by gender, as well as a brief description of how views on the impact of the project on local community consultation and employment information were collected and considered (requirement 2.2);
• Reporting on actual payments on how extractive revenues earmarked for specific programs or investments at the subnational level are managed and how these programs take into account the interests of women and other marginalized groups, and reflect mandatory payments for social and environmental needs (requirements 5.2, 6.1)
• Employment in the public and private sectors of the extractive industries in absolute terms and as a percentage of total employment. The information should be disaggregated by gender and occupational level, if available, as well as by company and project, and between local and foreign nationals (requirement 6.3), disclosure of information on regulations related to environmental permits and licenses, including social, gender and environmental impact assessments, as well as rehabilitation, decommissioning and closure programs (requirement 6.4)

4. Revenue collection

• Provide public information on who ultimately owns and controls companies operating in the country’s extractive industries (requirement 2.4);
• Include more detailed, comprehensive information on production and exports in the reporting (requirements 3.2 and 3.3);
• Disclosure of contracts for sales, infrastructure development, loans, barter transactions, and contracts that provide for mandatory payments for social and environmental needs (requirements 4.2, 4.3, 6.1);
• Provide information on effective tax rates, incentives and deductions, and achieve public understanding of infrastructure provisions and barter arrangements, including loans (requirements 4.1, 4.3, 4.9);
• Obtaining data on companies’ expenditures and information on the state expenditure monitoring system (requirement 4.10)

The changes will come into force on January 01, 2025.

Implementation of the EITI amendments will address the current challenges of extractive sector governance related to energy transition, fight against corruption and gender equality.

You can view the EITI Standard 2023 by following the links:

English version of the EITI Standard 2023

Version of the EITI Standard 2023 translated into Ukrainian