A single question: where can I find the data? The proposal behind a Global Materials Data Hub

The circular economy, the energy transition, industrial strategy and CBAM all rely on the same underlying evidence: data on the flow of materials through the global economy. Which minerals are mined where, at what environmental cost, transformed by whom, embedded in which products, recovered at what rate. The data exists. It is scattered across dozens of databases, in incompatible formats, with different definitions of the same term and different rules on who can access what and for what price.

The consequence is practical. A policy team writing an industrial strategy, an SME being asked to demonstrate a circular content threshold, and a lender assessing the resource-risk profile of a portfolio all end up asking the same question: where can I actually find the data, and can I trust it?

What is being proposed

A consortium of four organisations is now scoping a Global Materials Data Hub as a shared answer to that question. The consortium is co-led by the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Resource Panel and Systemiq (bringing the science-policy expertise of the UN's leading resource-use body, co-chaired by Dr Janez Potočnik and Dr Izabella Teixeira), the United Nations Environment Programme, and the Mining 2030 Commission, a multi-stakeholder body supported by global investors managing or advising some 18 trillion US dollars of assets. ICMM and the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development are supporting the work.

The Hub is not proposed as a new reporting requirement or as a replacement for existing initiatives. It is proposed as a public transparency and intelligence platform that would do three things: make existing data easier to find, compare and use; coordinate the closing of the most important data gaps; and improve interoperability across the reporting frameworks companies already navigate.

Where the work starts

The material scope begins tightly. The first coverage is on energy-transition minerals, with a second material group (wood is the working example) to follow. Coverage will expand from there. The scoping phase, which runs to the end of 2026, is designed to produce four concrete outputs: a user-needs assessment across policy, finance and business; a mapping of the current data landscape; a Hub blueprint covering governance, operations and financing; and an implementation roadmap for the next three years. A prototype is expected in 2027.

ICC's role in the consortium is defined by what ICC uniquely brings: reach across some 45 million companies in more than 170 countries, and a direct line to the SMEs whose reporting burden is often the sharpest test of any new data framework.

What ICC Netherlands is being asked to do

The scoping phase is being run through structured, one-hour interviews with companies in critical-mineral value chains, both upstream users and downstream. The interviews are informal, conducted under Chatham House rules, and require no preparation. ICC Netherlands is coordinating Dutch introductions. Members active in the critical-mineral value chain, or in materials-heavy sectors where the current data landscape is a live business problem, are invited to signal interest to the secretariat.

The full concept note, dated May 2026, is available on request. Consortium contacts: solange.harpham@iccwbo.org (ICC) and jonah.belitz@systemiq.earth (Systemiq).