Joining Together for a Just Transition
Indigenous Leadership in Emerging Green Economies
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ndigenous communities are taking a leadership role in emerging green energy economies by holding companies accountable to human rights commitments through the supply chain. On October 28, 2021, ahead of the climate negotiations at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Cultural Survival and 140 other organizations issued a joint statement calling on climate negotiators to make a binding This article is co-written commitment to source transition minerals by members of a coalition responsibly, and for the centering of human rights of Indigenous and front working to protect the line communities and workers at mining, rights of Indigenous recycling, reclamation, manufacturing, Peoples in the transition and renewable energy projects. to the Green Economy: Transition minerals such as nickel, Cultural Survival, First lithium, cobalt, and copper play a critical Peoples Worldwide, Batani role in the development of a green, low Fund, Aborigen Forum, carbon economy. Clean energy technologies, Earthworks, and the from electric vehicles and battery storage Society for Threatened to wind turbines and solar panels, require Peoples. a wide range of minerals and metals, and demand is skyrocketing. A report from the International Energy Agency forecasts that mineral requirements for clean energy technologies will quadruple by 2040, with electric vehicles and battery storage creating the largest industry demand. Demand for lithium, crucial for electric vehicle battery production, is estimated to increase 10-fold over the next decade, with at least one new mine needing to begin operations each year. The rapid increase of mining increases the danger of further displacement and dispossession of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous territories contain significant concentrations of untapped heavy metal reserves around the world. In the United States, 97 percent of nickel, 89 percent of copper, 79 percent of lithium, and 68 percent of cobalt reserves and resources are located within 35 miles of Native American reservations. Globally, we know that mining potentially influences 50 million square kilometers of Earth’s land surface, with 8 percent coinciding with Protected Areas, 7 percent with Key Biodiversity Areas, and 16 percent with Remaining Wilderness. Human rights violations follow the mining sector. The Business and Human Rights Resources Centre reports 304 human rights allegations made against all 115 companies involved in transition mineral extraction. Development frequently occurs without the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples, and has significant long22
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Pavel Sulyandziga (Udege), Director of Batani Fund, coordinates an international campaign to ensure that Russia's Nornickel respects Indigenous rights. Photo courtesy of Pavel Sulyandziga.
term impacts. In the short term, it brings an influx of temporary workers that can lead to increased transmission of COVID-19, increased criminal activity, and a degradation of local infrastructure. Other violations include forced migration, the murder of human rights defenders protesting development, and environmental threats to the land, water, and subsistence resources. The mining methods used in the extraction of transition minerals, such as water intensive extraction and open-pit mines, remain unchanged, and increased demand now threatens even more cultural and sacred sites, watersheds, and landscapes. During extraction, toxic materials such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium, chromium, and lead are released into the air and water, with devastating long-term effects on people and the environments they depend on. Indigenous communities are fighting back against increased mining within their homelands. In Argentina, companies started lithium mining and exploration without securing the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous communities. Now, 33 Kolla and Atacama communities have united to oppose any lithium extraction on their lands.
