By Nina Reed, S23 Environmental Clinic Student
The climate crisis has spurred a number of changes across industries. One avenue used to tackle the issue of climate change has been the through the clean energy transition. As the burning of fossil fuels remains the dominant cause of global warming, there have been large-scale efforts to end our reliance on fossil fuel energy in exchange for clean low-carbon energy generation.
Current efforts to build clean energy systems have driven the energy sector’s expanded use of a number of energy transition minerals and metals (ETMs). For example, solar photovoltaic plants, wind farms, and electric vehicles utilize ETMs in their creation and often use a combination of them. You have likely heard of many of these. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the most common ETMs lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite are used in batteries, while copper and aluminum are crucial for the performance of electricity networks. In the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario designed to meet the Paris Agreement goals (to limit the increase global temperature to 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels), the IEA predicts that the total demand for these minerals will rise over the next two decades at a rate of approximately 40% for copper, 60-70% for nickel and cobalt, and 90% for lithium. Clean energy technology utilizing these materials offer promising solutions to reducing greenhouse gasses and promoting a sustainable future. But at what cost?
In an attempt to answer this question, a recent paper published in Nature Sustainability has delved into the competing interests of global energy sustainability and the integrity of indigenous lands. In it, researchers highlighted the concern that “the local effects of resource extraction are superseded by concerns about the possible severity of climate change and the urgent need to act.” Researchers identified areas across the globe that were either Indigenous peoples’ land, peasant land, or land having an overlap of both identities as defined by the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous peoples (UNDRIP) and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), instruments developed to affirm the rights to these two groups.
For the analysis, researchers identified a subset of 5,097 global current and future mining projects expected to extract ETMs. By mapping these selected ETM projects, it was found that 54% were located on or near Indigenous peoples’ land and that 33% of projects were located on or near peasant land. In total, 69% of the ETM mining projects were on or near land that either qualifies as Indigenous peoples’ and/or peasant land. When compared regionally, ETM projects on or near Indigenous lands were highest in the Middle East, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean region. Unsurprisingly, the highest proportion of EMT projects located on or near both Indigenous peoples’ and peasant land were located in Africa, likely reflecting the continent’s history with colonization, displacement, and struggle over resource sovereignty.
While international recognition of Indigenous peoples’ and peasants land rights has culminated in the UNDRIP and UNDROP, this study reinforces that importance of strengthening the legal rights of these populations to safeguard their social and environmental interests. Moreover, the rapid speed at which mining projects are likely to appear in response to growing demand increases the risk to Indigenous and peasant peoples if proper safeguards and legal protections are not in place. While the switch to clean energy is necessary for a better future, it will be imperative that industries do not continue to repeat the pattern of historical exploitation of indigenous peoples and their resources particularly considering the culture and self-determination rights tied to their land.
