Mining and the Just Transition: Putting People at the Center of the Energy Transition

Key Points

• While mining contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions, it is also critical to the clean energy transition since it supplies essential minerals for renewable energy technologies.
• A just transition demands people-centered climate action from companies. In the mining industry, this involves making businesses cleaner and safer, ensuring benefits and burdens are shared fairly, and embedding respect for labor and human rights in every decarbonization decision.
• BSR recommends steps that mining companies can take across their own operations and supply chains, as well as the communities in which they operate, to achieve a fair, inclusive energy transition.

The mining industry plays a dual role in climate change: while the industry contributes 4 to 7 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it is also an essential enabler of the clean energy transition, supplying the minerals needed for renewable energy technologies and low-carbon infrastructure. These transition minerals will play a pivotal role in supporting the global transition to a low-carbon economy because renewable energy technologies (e.g., solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, etc.), rely on copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements. While the recycling of transition minerals should be prioritized wherever possible, it will be insufficient to meet skyrocketing demand in the short to medium term given limited supply of recyclable materials, making the development of new and expanded mines necessary. However, any new or expanded mines must be developed only under the strictest ecological safeguards and with full respect for human rights, to avoid repeating the environmental destruction, social conflict, and rights violations that have too often accompanied mining in the past. 

Among governments, civil society, Indigenous leaders, multilateral institutions like the ILO, as well as industry coalitions such as the ICMM, there is a growing consensus that the mining industry must undergo a just transition to address its dual role as both a driver of climate harm and an enabler of climate solutions. At its core, a just transition in the mining industry means that the benefits and burdens of the global energy shift are shared fairly, and that mining companies proactively uphold human rights and justice as they adapt to a decarbonizing economy and expand operations to meet growing demand. A just transition requires mining operations to become far cleaner and safer than in the past, treating environmental protection and respect for human rights as non-negotiable priorities. 

For mining companies, action on just transition falls into three areas: in their own operations, in their supply chains, and in the communities in which they operate. Their just transition actions should be built upon an unwavering goal of reaching net zero by 2050 and commitment to respecting human rights. Meeting these goals would involve conducting ongoing environmental and human rights due diligence, upholding the highest standards, and considering, mitigating, and remedying the impacts to people in their decarbonization efforts and beyond.  

BSR recommends that responsible mining companies focus on: 

• Climate Action with a Human Lens: Integrate social impacts into climate mitigation and adaptation efforts to ensure people, not just emissions and impacts to infastructure, are considered in transition plans and climate action. Mitigate harms to people, and where harms do occur, provide remedy. Consider those actions caused and contributed to by the company, as well as those linked to the company through business relationships. 
• Environmental Responsibility: Minimize impacts on nature and the environment, and safeguard against worker and community harm through responsible land, water, waste, and pollution management. Limit impacts to biodiversity, land disturbance, water use, waste, and pollution. 
• Respect for Workers and Just Labor Practices: Uphold labor and human rights, including fair wages, safe working conditions, freedom of association, and collective bargaining. Manage mine closures, automation, and changes to the workforce and production through transparent social dialogue (e.g., negotiation and consultation between workers, employers, and sometimes governments), reskilling, compensation, and worker-inclusive transition planning to ensure no one is left behind from decarbonization efforts. 
• Responsible Supply Chains: Apply environmental, human rights, and just transition standards across procurement of equipment, materials, and services. Use due diligence to ensure suppliers meet ethical and sustainability expectations, and set clear expectations for just labor practices around decarbonization and expectations on respecting human rights to suppliers. 
• Stakeholder Engagement and Social Dialogue: Foster inclusive, transparent, and continuous engagement with key stakeholders that will be impacted by the transition, especially workers (through social dialogue) and communities (including Indigenous people), to inform decision-making and build mutual trust. Establish formal mechanisms for dialogue, engagement, grievances, and participation to ensure voices are heard and incorporated throughout the transition process. 
• Community Rights, Consent, and Inclusion: With over 50 percent of known reserves of transition minerals like copper, lithium, and others located on or near Indigenous and agrarian community lands, respect for Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is critical. Recognize and integrate Indigenous Peoples Principles and Protocols for Just Transition into company approaches. 
• Benefit-Sharing and Local Development: Ensure communities share in the value created through royalties, equity, local hiring, and infrastructure investment. Go beyond impact mitigation to build long-term regional resilience, trust, and partnership. Rely on co-creation to ensure that mining is carried out with the community, not just in the community.  

The mining sector bears a responsibility to implement a just transition that addresses its distinctive challenges. Mining companies can become champions of a just transition by transforming the way they do business: cutting emissions, innovating cleaner processes, upholding labor and human rights, and sharing benefits with local communities. Through honest engagement, benefit-sharing, rights protection, and long-term investment in regional well-being, mining companies can provide a foundation built on social trust and consent, allowing for the energy transition to be just, equitable, and inclusive.  

Interested in learning more about just transition or taking action across your mining operations, supply chains, and communities? Connect with BSR’s Energy and Extractives team to learn how we can support. 

This article was originally published at the BSR website "Sustainability Insights" and is written by Ouida Chichester, Director, Energy, Extractives, Transport, and Industrials, Elisa Pinto de Magalhães, Manager, Energy, Extractives, Transport, and Industrials & Margot Thompson-Wells, Associate, Human Rights, at BSR.