Public trust through shared prosperity is the key to a fast transition to a green economy. But Joan Carling and Phil Bloomer ask: are we, instead, entering an age of green colonialism?
Vast wealth is beginning to be generated from the urgent transition to global green economies. Immense new mines are opening to gain the copper, lithium, and nickel needed for electrification, and renewable energy projects are occupying increasing tracts of land with photovoltaic cells and wind turbines.
For Indigenous peoples and similarly marginalised communities, this can be an opportunity for their own sustainable development or a serious risk for their further exclusion. Over 50% of all known global reserves of transition minerals, alongside some of the best locations for solar and wind farms, are on their territories. Yet, given the long history of dispossession and despoliation of their lands by mining and energy companies (see box, Mine protests buried), many understandably fear that the transition could quickly become the next wave of ‘green colonialism’.
The growing scale of investment in the energy transition is breathtaking. Renewable energy (RE) capacity must triple in the next six years, and global annual investment in building them will reach an estimated US$4.5 trillion by the early 2030s.
The transition to green economies will only achieve the speed we require if it deals with this distrust by explicitly embracing fairness and sustainability and promoting shared prosperity
In October 2023, amid a heavy police presence and the arrests of over twenty community leaders who had spoken out against the mine, public consultation occurred for the environmental clearance of the Sijimali Bauxite block in Odisha, India. By December 2023, multiple village assemblies reportedly faced coercion to consent to diverge forest lands for the mining project. The mine remains widely opposed by community members from the surrounding villages, who allege it will destroy their environment and way of life. The repression of protestors continues.
Abuse and Protest at Las Bambas Copper Mine in Peru
The Las Bambas copper mine in Peru, which accounts for 2% of global copper production, is another case in point. Owned by the Chinese company Minerals and Mining Group (MMG), part of China Minmetals, it has recorded the highest number of allegations (68 in total) since the Resource Centre began tracking in 2010. This is despite MMG being the only Chinese-owned mining company committed to several well-recognised voluntary responsible business initiatives in addition to its corporate human rights policy. Initially, the mine was owned by Glencore, which sold it to MMG in 2014—marking it the largest acquisition of an overseas mining asset by a Chinese entity.
Over the years, the mine has allegedly caused a series of environmental and human rights impacts, including forced relocations, protests, violent repression of Indigenous and peasant communities opposing the mine, as well as killings and imprisonment. In 2018 and 2019, conflicts lasting over 200 days erupted over the construction of a road crossing community lands, allegedly without prior consultation.
Overall, the site has been described as operating in a constant ‘state of conflict’, with hundreds of transportation days lost and associated costs of US$9.5 million for each day. This illustrates how superficial community engagement can have significant consequences for operations and threaten to derail the global supply of one of the most critical minerals.
The growing scale of investment in the energy transition is breathtaking. Renewable energy (RE) capacity must triple in the next six years, and global annual investment in building them will reach an estimated US$4.5 trillion by the early 2030s. The International Energy Agency estimates that the extraction of transition minerals must increase sixfold by 2040 to meet science-based targets, with lithium extraction growing to 40 times (though this demand must be reduced through recycling).
The UN Climate Summit, COP29, in Baku in December 2025 was called ‘The Finance COP’. Rich countries disappointed developing countries by committing only to “taking the lead” to find £300 billion per year for poorer countries’ decarbonisation plans, loss and damage from extreme weather, and adaptation to changing climate. Many statements were made that this public finance could de-risk private capital, turning ‘billions to trillions’ to deliver green economies. The reality is more pedestrian.
An OECD report has calculated that in 2022, the rich nations’ bilateral finance of $92bn mobilised $22bn in private investment –24 cents of private finance crowded in for every dollar of public funds spent (for more on the failure to ‘crowd in’ see here). The danger with this model is that to deliver better ratios, desperate developing country governments will resort to more sweeteners to attract private finance in tax breaks, confidentiality, and exceptions to national law, undermining their own responsive and accountable government and, with it, public trust.
In the Finance COP, as with the whole debate on the just transition, the distributional impacts of these money flows and the projects they facilitate is often ignored. In our current market conditions of immense inequality, the gains and advantages from these investments naturally pass up to those with power and wealth, and the costs will be passed down to the supply chain to communities and workers. This is why we see growing delays in project implementation and ballooning costs as public trust is squandered and community protests, blockades and legal challenges disrupt abusive investments in transition mineral mining and renewables mega-projects. In the worst cases, these protests are met with threats and attacks to silence environmental and Indigenous defenders.
This business model has failed. It is not fit for the new and urgent demands of the green transition.
This business model has failed. It is not fit for the new and urgent demands of the green transition. But what conditions will deliver the fast and fair energy transition the world needs? In April this year, eighty-seven Indigenous Peoples’ representatives met to issue a Declaration by Indigenous Peoples for a Just Transition. This “recognises and supports the need to end fossil fuel reliance and shift to RE as critical in addressing the climate crisis” while calling for companies to “fairly negotiate and implement equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms, including co-ownership and co-equity models…” The Declaration calls for Indigenous People’s self-determination and decision-making mechanisms, including their right to Free Prior and Informed Consent, to be respected.
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights International and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre work with communities and workers worldwide to catalogue the scale of abuse and delay from irresponsible investments and highlight the growing number of innovative approaches that deliver greater shared prosperity. All this experience of communities and workers points to three key principles that must be respected to build public trust to facilitate a fast and fair transition: shared prosperity, corporate respect for people’s and nature’s rights, and fair negotiations.
Our latest joint publication focuses on Shared Prosperity and shows how it is achieved in diverse conditions across four continents. It builds on our joint database of better business practices for shared prosperity and over 40 interviews with Indigenous People’s representatives, investors, and companies. It also includes the Resource Centre’s Renewable Energy Human Rights Benchmark and the Transition Mineral Tracker.
Shared Prosperity requires the intentional design of investments upstream, in consultation with communities, to deliver mutually agreed-upon benefits to IPs set out in binding contracts. Shared benefits often demand co-ownership models in which IPs take equity stakes in RE projects. These are on the rise globally, driven by Indigenous Peoples’ demand for power within the project and the business case. They create a more cooperative and stable investment environment required for the scale of RE ambitions by governments, companies, and investors (see box, Shared prosperity).
Corporate Respect for Human Rights demands that companies engage with communities and workers upstream to identify their salient human rights and environmental risks and design risk mitigation schemes. In a small but increasing number of cases, more far-sighted companies are providing grants to ensure Indigenous Peoples can hire their own independent advice to make these assessments and to enable them to co-design the project, ensuring respect for their culture and sustainable land use plans.
Only when governments and companies accept the right of communities to reject unfair and abusive conditions can an assertive and constructive negotiation be achieved.
Fair negotiations involve respect for the core rights of Indigenous Peoples and workers. Free Prior and Informed consent lies at the heart of fair negotiations. Only when governments and companies accept the right of communities to reject unfair and abusive conditions can an assertive and constructive negotiation be achieved. Companies need to see FPIC as an invitation to negotiate fairly to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes
“Free, prior and informed consent is a vital right that ensures IPs and their communities can make decisions regarding the use of their territories, lands and resources, thus guaranteeing their participation and respecting their self-determination.” Cecilio Solis Librado, CIELO, Mexico
Much money will be made from the transition to green economies. After UN Climate Summit in Baku, climate finance arenas will be filled with voices from the financial world seeking to shape these necessary financial flows into mining and energy generation to maximise the returns to investors. But, if once again, the needs and demands of workers and communities are drowned out by the primacy of money markets, then the Summit’s decisions will decelerate the urgent transition. A fast transition can only be achieved by ensuring a fair transition that builds public trust through shared prosperity and respect for human rights. It may be inconvenient to business, but it is a truth being played out worldwide to secure the transition we all desperately need. Fortunately, the 2025 COP30 in Brazil and the G20 chaired by South Africa present far better prospects for this balanced approach to prevail.
