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hat does cheap oil mean to global resource governance? As the oil price is falling below US$30 per barrel, it is important for us to rethink a more sustainable model to manage natural resources, in particular the oil, gas and mining sectors.

The falling oil price and the current crisis in the energy sectors have brought challenges for each stakeholder. For industries, the economic situation represents a vicious cycle for doing business in the energy sectors. Government can also be affected with low revenues from the extractive sectors.

However, for civil society organizations and other stakeholders, the crisis can be seen, in another way, as a momentum to set the state'€™s and industries'€™ capacity to be more resilient and sustainable. The crisis can provide, however, a momentum to set up a more accountable mechanism for resource governance on the global level.

An attempt to reform global resource governance has been ongoing since the 2000s. It was in these years the Western countries started the '€œtransparency campaign'€ in extractive industries. Following the '€œpublish what you pay'€ campaign that demands a greater accountability from oil and mining companies, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (EITI) was launched.

The initiative, supported by then UK prime minister Tony Blair and several other countries, was set as a platform for multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Since its establishment, EITI has pushed forward a mechanism that is set to maintain accountability for state and industry regarding their revenues in extractive sectors.

The mechanism was adopted as a standard in 2013, a decade after the initiative was established. This year, EITI will hold its seventh Global Conference in Lima, Peru, on Feb. 24 and 25. This conference will evaluate the implementation of the EITI standard as adopted in the previous EITI Conference in 2013.

However, it was also in this decade the Chinese '€œgo global'€ policy was endorsed by governments. In 2002 and 2003, Chinese oil companies expanded their investments to many Asian and African countries.

Backed with government support, those companies only needed four years to establish five energy projects in 26 countries, marking the rise of China as a global energy player, as according to Coventry University researcher Liliane C. Mouan in 2010.
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An attempt to reform global resource governance has been ongoing since the 2000s.

As noted by Poppy S. Winanti and Emmanuel Bria in The Jakarta Post on Feb. 1, China has actively engaged to control supply from resource-rich countries. Its engagement is particularly visible in Southeast Asia, a region that is geographically strategic for the Chinese regional environment.

Chinese global investments in energy and extractive industries have also brought challenges for global energy politics. Different with Western countries, China does not necessarily familiar with such norms imposed by Western countries to govern their natural resources, such as transparency or accountability.

Although Chinese business performance has proven to be more resilient, particularly during the global economic crisis that affected many in the US and Europe, China, according to Winanti and Bria, hardly accepted particular global norms.

The Chinese tend to do business with other countries insofar as the business gives benefit to both sides.

The rise of China, as well as the current crisis in the global energy market, has raised two important questions.

First, what can be done to improve more sustainable resource governance through EITI?

Second, how can EITI maintain its global norm, such as transparency and accountability, alongside the rise of China in the global energy market?

Since its establishment in 2002, EITI was intended to be a platform for multi-stakeholder partnerships in the extractive sector. It had, at first, agreed to five criteria related to accountability of business practices in extractive sectors. In the criteria, all companies and states are required to disclose their revenues in an auditable standard.

The monitoring process involves a multi-stakeholder forum to ensure transparency and accountability in the sector. Civil society organizations are then encouraged to participate at the forum.

This process, as stated by Clare Short '€” current EITI chairwoman '€” is to ensure the benefits of extractive industries can be accessed by all citizens.

The principle was then developed to a more rigid standard as agreed in 2013.

However, despite of this high level of achievement, there is still a need for improvement. It is clear that of all countries that implement EITI not all '€œbig'€ countries whose oil companies are extracting resources from all over the world are implementing or complying with EITI standards.

China and Russia have not yet implemented nor complied with EITI requirements. The US and UK, two important countries that were campaigning for transparency and good governance, have just been accepted as EITI candidates in 2014.

Most of EITI countries are resource-rich developing countries, either in Asia, Africa, or Latin America.

The absence of prominent global energy players such as the US, the UK, China, or Russia has created
a paradox in global resource governance.

While the mechanism for accountable resource governance has been initiated in developing countries, it still lacks support from major energy players.

Consequently, the forum can produce a mechanism for developing countries, while neglecting the fact that many big oil companies are based in big countries '€” or even owned by the government.

In this sense, EITI still needs to broaden its support from state representatives. EITI needs to bring along those states'€™ representatives in the conference to improve the political reach of multi-stakeholder partnerships.

It leads to our second question related to the rise of China in the global energy market. With its state-owned energy enterprises (such as CNOOC, Sinopec, or CNPC), the wide reach of those companies poses challenges for EITI to impose its principles and standards.

Several analysts have endorsed Chinese involvement in EITI to improve their business performance.

Yet, it appears that China still has its own logic of resource governance and is not really familiar with such EITI norms, standards and principles.

Nevertheless, with its global expansion in Asian and African countries, such norms can still be introduced through particular states that are cooperating with China in extractive industries.

With the current oil crisis, however, it is important for us to think beyond states or standards in extractive industry sectors.

The most important thing to do is to create a sustainable platform in this sector. It needs to be addressed at the EITI Global Conference by every stakeholder.
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The writer is a policy analyst with Global Leadership Initiatives, University of Sheffield, UK.