“Enabling a Just Transition: Protecting Human Rights in Renewable Energy Projects”, April 2023

Much of the world’s non-commercially exploited land and natural resources, including key sources of renewable energy, are found in or around the territories of Indigenous Peoples… These peoples and communities therefore play a central role in land-based climate mitigation efforts, which risks being jeopardized if they are excluded from large-scale development decision-making…

Continuing the necessary expansion of the renewable energy sector to meet global climate objectives therefore requires advancing a just energy transition that adequately addresses its human rights impacts…

In October 2020, multiple human rights groups filed a lawsuit against Électricité de France (EDF)… The complaint alleged that EDF failed to conduct adequate human rights due diligence in relation to its wind farm development in Mexico, resulting in a violation of the Indigenous Zapotec community of Unión Hidalgo’s right to FPIC… [Company response to these allegations is available here].

This briefing provides guidance to policymakers on the benefits of and strategies for taking a human rights-based approach to renewable energy policy…

Renewables can enable access to affordable and reliable energy, including in remote locations, create local jobs, and promote self-sufficiency where projects are collectively owned and managed…

Policymakers have a critical role in mainstreaming co-equity models, including cooperative models, joint ventures, equity allocation, transfer of ownership over time, or those that otherwise share benefits with affected peoples and communities…