The Working Paper Saplings of hope presents an updated overview of emerging and promising prevention and enforcement actions, initiatives and measures implemented by States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) to combat corruption related to crimes that have an impact on the environment. It focuses specifically on initiatives from 2024 and 2025.

UNCAC Resolution 8/12 – Preventing and combating corruption as it relates to crimes that have an impact on the environment – forms the basis of the paper. This landmark Resolution, adopted at the 8th session of the Conference of the States Parties to UNCAC in December 2019, recognises the relationship between corruption and environmental crimes. It urges States Parties to prevent, investigate and prosecute corruption offences where they may be linked to crimes that have an impact on the environment.

The paper highlights promising corruption prevention measures, with concrete examples from Kenya, Malawi, Bolivia, Ukraine and other countries:

• Strengthening internal integrity systems e.g. through revised internal controls and risk management frameworks
• Promoting knowledge of integrity and anti-corruption measures through capacity building and awareness-raising campaigns
• Anchoring corruption prevention in leadership by involving senior management and aligning integrity measures with institutional priorities
• Using evidence-based tools, such as staff corruption perception/experience surveys, to assess progress
• Enhancing reporting and detection through whistleblowing mechanisms supported by strong protections and an enabling institutional culture
• Promoting learning and joint solutions through peer-to-peer exchanges among government officials facing similar corruption risks.

Promising enforcement actions, evident in examples from Namibia, Indonesia, Madagascar, Canada and other countries, include:

• Expanding the use of financial investigations and related legal frameworks, including money laundering and tax legislation, to pursue corruption linked to environmental crimes.
• Assessing economic, social and environmental losses to inform penalties and sanctions
• Strengthening asset recovery to ensure that corruption does not pay and to halt ongoing environmental harm.
• Strengthening enforcement through multi-agency and interdisciplinary cooperation at national and international levels

The Working Paper also underscores the essential role of non-state actors, in particular civil society, academia and the media, in this collective endeavour – despite facing increasingly repressive environments. Their efforts include investigative reporting, evidence-based research and learning, creating networks and building bridges, and initiating litigation.

Finally, the paper makes the case for a paradigm shift from “corruption as it relates to crimes that have an impact on the environment” to “corruption that has an impact on the environment”, recognising that corruption can harm the environment even where it is not linked to a crime that has an impact on the environment. In this context, Section 5 explores two interconnected issues with a devastating impact on the environment:

• corruption linked to climate finance and renewable energy; and
• corruption tied to the exploitation of critical minerals.

About this Working Paper

This report is part of the Green Corruption programme at the Basel Institute on Governance and was prepared in the context of the 11th Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption in Doha, Qatar, from 14–19 December 2025.

It provides an update to Working Paper 50, 'Seedlings of hope: Addressing corruption linked to crimes that impact the environment in line with UNCAC Resolution 8/12’, which was prepared in the context of CoSP10 in Atlanta, Georgia, US in 2023.

The report is part of the Basel Institute on Governance Working Paper Series, ISSN: 2624-9650. You may share or republish the report under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

It was made possible by the generous support of the Principality of Liechtenstein.

The contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Basel Institute on Governance, its donors and partners, or the University of Basel.

Suggested citation: Lemaître, Sophie. 2025. ‘Saplings of hope: Addressing corruption that has an impact on the environment in line with UNCAC Resolution 8/12 and beyond.’ Working Paper 61, Basel Institute on Governance. Available at: baselgovernance.org/publications/wp-61.