UN panel issues guidelines for mining centered on human rights, sustainability

Staff Writer | September 12, 2024 | 

Artisanal miners in Sierra Leone. ( Credit: Pact/ Jorden de Haan.)

A panel of experts convened by the United Nations has issued a set of recommendations and guidelines for governments and mining companies to ensure that human rights, justice and equity are safeguarded during the global pursuit for energy transition minerals.


The panel’s report – Resourcing the energy transition: principles to guide critical energy transition minerals towards equity and justice – 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, the UN stated in a press release.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who helped establish the panel in April, said the report serves as “a how-to guide to help generate prosperity and equality alongside clean power,” noting that it makes recommendations on critical minerals at a crucial time, with their demand expected to almost triple by 2030.

“This 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 stated.

The panel’s recommendations range from establishing a high-level expert advisory group housed within the UN to facilitate multistakeholder policy dialogue and coordination on economic issues in mineral value chains, to a global traceability, transparency and accountability framework, to creating a fund to address legacy issues as a result of derelict, ownerless or abandoned mines.

They also include empowering artisanal and small-scale miners to become agents of transformation to foster development, environmental stewardship and human rights, to strengthening material efficiency and circularity.

The recommendations recognize the central role of the Secretary-General and the UN as an honest broker and convener of diverse interests on a complex and challenging set of issues critical to the energy transition and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, the UN said in its press release.

As next steps, the Secretary General has asked the co-chairs and panel to socialize the report and its recommendations with member states and other stakeholders ahead of COP29 conference held later this year.

To access the report, the list of panel members, and more, please visit: www.un.org/en/climatechange/critical-minerals.