Indigenous countries are feeling the cruel bite of the green energy transition

Rukka Sombolinggi, an indigenous Torajan woman from Sulawesi, Indonesia, is the first female Secretary General of AMAN, the world’s largest organization for indigenous peoples.

In mid-April, 87 indigenous leaders from 35 countries gathered in New York to lay out a set of demands to tackle a common scourge: the green energy transition that has our peoples under siege.

Globally, we are experiencing land theft and an increasing wave of criminalization and attacks because we speak out against itmining and renewableenergy projectsthat violate our rights with consequences documented by the UN and other experts. Their research confirms what we know firsthand. 

And yet political and economic actors continue to ignore thisproofwho push us aside in their rush to build a system to replace fossil fuels, while guided by the same values ​​that are destroying the natural world.

Ironically, we released this statement during UN Sustainability Week – renewable energy was on the agenda. We were not.

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Indigenous peoples are not opposed to turning away from oil and gas, nor are we opposed to investing in renewable energy systems as an alternative.

But we must have something to say.More than half of the minesexpected to produce metals and minerals for renewable technologies are located on or near the territories of indigenous peoples and farming communities.

Resource extraction is causing a triple crisis

In the words of theUN Global Resource Outlook 2024which was published with little fanfare in March by the UN Environment Program: “The current model of natural resource extraction…is causing an unprecedented triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.”

Mining companies have been offered a path to sustainability. Few have taken that path.

And it won’t happen unless global and national decision makers take advantage of this key moment in history to demand change. Indigenous leaders must also have a seat at the table.

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We are not willing to let our areas become the deserts that mining companies are creating.leaking toxinsinto our rivers and soils, poisoning our water and food sources, and by extension, our children.

The playing field for indigenous peoples is grossly unfair. The authors of the Global Sources Outlook cite evidence of national governments advancing corporate interests “by removing legal protections for indigenous communities, expropriating land… or even using military forces to protect mining facilities.”

Why would this matter to people on the other side of the planet?

Proven surpass Across the public and private sectors, indigenous peoples preserve some of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Negotiators of global climate events may point to our outsized role in conservation, but the treaty language allows our governments to decide when and whether to recognize or enforce our rights.

Companies are advised to engage with our communities – not to prevent them from harming us, but to avoid costly conflicts that arise in response to outdated and destructive practices.

These “externalities” that drive us from our ancestral homes and harm our health and the ecosystems we cherish are only revealed when they become “material,” of interest to investors and relevant to risk analysts.

Tensions are rising over who will contribute to this new climate finance target

Our resistance is expensive and material. Failure to properly obtain consent before sending in the bulldozers could bring a project to a standstill, with a price tag of up to $20 million a week. And learning to use communities the tools of the commercial legal system to defend themselves.

Researchers at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania report that over time, shareholders benefit most when companies respond to the demands of their most influential stakeholders. Indigenous peoples are the stakeholders we must please.

Our communities are disrupting supply chains, but when our rights are respected, we can also be the best indicators of a company’s intent to prevent harm to people and the planet.

Call for a ban on mining in no-go zones

In the statement we released in New York earlier this month, we called for laws to reduce energy consumption worldwide and set a path to ensure the green transition is just.

We have urged our governments to recognize and protect our rights as a priority; to put an end to the killings, violence and criminalization of our peoples; and to require companies to secure our free, prior, and informed consent, and avoid harm to our lands and resources.

A growing body of evidence suggests that indigenous peoples rooted in their ancestral lands can draw on traditional knowledge, spanning generations, to help nature evolve and adapt to a changing climate. We understand the sustainable use of wild species and keep genetically in our gardens sources that can protect crops of immeasurable economic and nutritional value.

Current practices metals and mineral extraction endanger our peoples and endanger climate, biodiversity, water, global health and food security. Researchers warned earlier this year that the unprecedented scale of demand for ‘green’ minerals will destroy more and more land and drive larger numbers of indigenous and other local peoples from our homes.

Q&A: What you need to know critical minerals

That’s why our statement also calls on governments to impose a ban on the expansion of mining in ‘no-go’ zones – those areas that our peoples consider sacred and essential as sources of food and clean water. Indigenous communities, rooted in time and tradition, can help prevent the green transition from destroying biomes that serve all humanity.

The UN Secretary General launches one panel the field of critical minerals today appears to recognize the importance of avoiding harm to affected communities and the environment.

This is a step in the right direction, but indigenous peoples and our leaders – and the recognition and enforcement of our rights – must be central to any mining and renewable energy proposal that affects us and our territories. This is the only way to prevent the “climate response measures” enabled by the Paris Agreement from damaging solutions already in place.