The United Nations’ Critical Energy Transition Minerals Panel issued a series of recommendations and voluntary principles aimed at ensuring equitable, fair and sustainable management of these minerals. The guidelines are aimed at governments, industry and other stakeholders in energy transition processes.

This comes at a time when the global renewable energy movement, which seeks to reduce emissions that exacerbate the climate crisis, has highlighted how the environmental and social costs of transition minerals extraction fall disproportionately on local communities and ecosystems.

Claudia Velarde, co-director of the Ecosystems Program of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), said:

“For Latin America, the recommendations and principles are very important, since a large part of the reserves of resources essential for the energy transition are in the region, in complex territories rich in biological and cultural diversity.

Significantly, the panel places human rights and justice at the center, recognizing the complexity of the energy transition and the inequality between countries in the global South that host the minerals and those in the North that need them for their own transition.

To move forward with justice, the energy transition must break with the development status quo, include perspectives from the global South, respect the human rights of local communities, and recognize ecosystem boundaries.

While there is still a long way to go to achieve a truly just and popular energy transition for Latin America, we hope that this contribution will be a step in that direction.”

The recommendations and principles are contained in a report in which the Panel explains how the transition t to renewable energy can be based on justice and equity, promoting sustainable development, respect for people, and protection of the environment in developing countries.

The Panel proposes seven voluntary guiding principles, based on standards, commitments and legal obligations established in United Nations texts:

1. Human rights must be at the core of all mineral value chains.
2. The integrity of the planet, its environment and biodiversity must be safeguarded.
3. Justice and equity must underpin mineral value chains.
4. Development must be fostered through benefit sharing, value addition and economic diversification.
5. Investments, finance and trade must be responsible and fair.
6. Transparency, accountability and anti-corruption measures are necessary to ensure good governance.
7. Multilateral and international cooperation must underpin global action and promote peace and security.

Read the panel report: https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/report_sg_panel_on_critical_energy_transition_minerals_11_sept_2024.pdf

Learn more about panel: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/critical-minerals

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