South Africa is on the path to a just transition.
(Getty Images)
A panel of experts convened by the United Nations has released a set of recommendations for governments to ensure that the opportunities of the global energy transition are pursued with equity, justice and sustainability.
UN secretary general António Guterres established the Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals to develop guiding principles which can serve as “guardrails for the energy transition”. It is co-chaired by ambassador Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-Diseko of South Africa and director general for energy Ditte Juul Jørgensen of the European Commission.
The panel’s report on critical energy transition minerals comes at a crucial time, Guterres said in a statement. “We established the panel in response to calls from developing countries, amid signs that the energy transition could reproduce and amplify inequalities of the past, banishing developing countries to the bottom of value chains to watch others grow rich by exploiting their people and putting their environment in jeopardy.”
The report identifies ways to ground the renewables revolution in justice and equity, “so that it spurs sustainable development, respects people, protects the environment, and powers prosperity in resource-rich developing countries”, Guterres added.
The panel’s recommendations include establishing a high-level expert advisory group housed in the UN to facilitate multi-stakeholder policy dialogue and coordination on economic issues in mineral value chains, to a global traceability, transparency and accountability framework.
Other recommendations include creating a fund to address legacy problems linked to derelict, ownerless and abandoned mines, and empowering artisanal and small-scale miners to become “agents of transformation”.
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C to avert the worst effect of climate change will depend on the sufficient, reliable and affordable supply of critical energy transition minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements, which are essential components of clean energy technologies — from wind turbines and solar panels to electric vehicles
and battery storage.
At the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28), governments agreed to triple the roll-out of renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030. The International Energy Agency estimates that demand for the critical energy transition minerals required to enable this will triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040.
A transition of this magnitude brings with it tremendous opportunities, but also substantial challenges, the panel’s report said.
“Mining, at all scales, large and small, has too often been linked with human rights abuses, environmental degradation and conflict. Indigenous peoples’ lands and resources have been dispossessed and the lives of local peoples upended,” it said.
Responsible companies working to reform the sector continue to face an “uneven playing field”, with insufficient incentives for irresponsible actors to meet acceptable standards.
For countries with the critical energy transition minerals required for these technologies,
including developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific, the opportunity is significant.
Meeting this challenge in a principled way can only be done if governments, business, civil society and the UN act together to properly manage mineral value chains, uphold the rule of law in a non-discriminatory way, respect national sovereignty, invest in true multilateralism and peacebuilding and ensure universal human rights are protected, the report noted.
It issues recommendations for fairness, transparency, investment, sustainability and human rights along the entire value chain.
“This is a time when cooperation is paramount for nations to effectively address multiple crises,” said Mxakato-Diseko.
“With climate change at the centre of these crises, there is urgency to work together with a clear understanding that we either sink together or rise together, on the basis of the common values that have bound nations together thus far, with human rights, justice, equity and benefit sharing guiding us towards shared global prosperity.”
Guterres has asked the co-chairs and panel to consult and share the report and its recommendations with member states and other stakeholders ahead of COP29 later this year.