At the 8th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), in December 2019, States Parties adopted a resolution recognising the relationship between corruption and environmental crimes.

Resolution 8/12 – Preventing and combating corruption as it relates to crimes that have an impact on the environment – is a landmark Resolution. With its 23 operative paragraphs (OPs), it underlies the importance of addressing corruption linked to crimes that have an impact on the environment. 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.

Saplings of hope presents an updated overview of emerging and promising prevention and enforcement actions, initiatives and measures implemented by UNCAC States Parties to combat corruption as it pertains to crimes that have an impact on the environment. It focuses specifically on initiatives from 2024 and 2025.

The Working Paper also underscores the valuable contributions made by non-state actors, in particular civil society, academia and the media, in this collective endeavour.

Finally, it makes the case for a paradigm shift, moving from "corruption as it relates to crimes that have an impact on the environment" to "corruption that has an impact on the environment". The shift is necessary, because corruption can harm the environment without being linked to a crime that has an impact on the environment. Section 5 thus explores two interconnected issues which have a devastating impact on the environment: corruption linked to climate finance and renewable energy as well as 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.