Communities and workers are suing companies and states over abusive mining and renewable energy projects. What does this mean for the energy transition?

This year we tracked 30 cases of just transition litigation, bringing the global total to 125 cases. These lawsuits, which target companies and states, span the whole renewable energy value chain, from transition mineral mining (bauxite, copper, cobalt, iron ore, lithium, manganese, nickel, rare earth minerals and zinc) to renewable energy projects (solar, wind and hydropower) – painting a picture of growing resistance to abuse which threatens the energy transition as a whole.

Rightsholders’ experience of similar harms at both ends of the renewable energy value chain has implications for the speed and sustainability of the energy transition.