Presentation
Commodity trading is evolving fast – with significant impact worldwide and changing relationship between states and trading companies. As resource nationalism and energy security concerns reshapes commodity markets, traders are moving beyond their traditional role as intermediaries. An rising part of their benefits accrue from financial operations on commodity markets and they increasingly provide loans to producer states and companies, securing future supplies through pre-financing and offtake agreements.
On their part, resource-rich countries are seeking to capture more value from their natural wealth by becoming market actors themselves and seeking to move up the value-added ladder - selling and trading commodities rather than relying solely on taxes, royalties and dividends.
These developments create new opportunities, but also new dependencies and risks. What does this mean for producer states seeking to turn natural resources into sustainable development outcomes - and what role should commodity traders and other important stakeholders play?
Programme
18:30 Welcome and introduction
- Gilles Carbonnier, Professor of Development Economics, Geneva Graduate Institute
- Bertram Lang, Senior Policy Adviser, Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF)
18:45 The Changing Face of Commodity Trade. Key Findings from the Report
- Fritz Brugger, Co-director and Senior Scientist, ETH/NADEL
19:00 Panel Discussion and Q&A
- Misozi Mwanza, Mining Professional & Expert in Sustainable Mining and Value Chain, Zambia
- Florence Schurch, Secretary General, SuisseNégoce
- Marc Guéniat, Journalist, Le Temps
- Humberto Campodonico, Docente Principal, Universidad de San Marcos (Lima) and former President of PetroPeru
- Fritz Brugger, ETH/Nadel
Moderation: Gilles Carbonnier, Geneva Gradute Institute
20:00 Networking
2026 Swiss Alliance for Global Research Partnerships (GRP-Alliance)'s REPORT and Factsheet
The 2026 Report of the Swiss Academy of Sciences' Alliance for Global Research Partnerships (SCNAT GRP-Alliance) on "Beyond the Transaction: Commodity Trade and Sustainable Development - Interdisciplinary Literature Review" takes stock of the current evidence on commodity trade and global sustainable development across the academic disciplines of law, economics, environmental, political and social sciences.
Download full Report Download CONCISE FACTSHEET
Registration
Registration is required.
Co-Organizors
The event is jointly organised by the Inter-Governmental Forum on Mining and Minerals (IGF), the Swiss Academy of Sciences' Alliance for Global Research Partnerships (SCNAT GRP-Alliance) and the Geneva Graduate Institute's Centre for Finance and Development.
