Electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and other clean energy technologies are driving booming demand for metals and minerals – including copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel – which many countries now consider “critical” to their security. But will procuring those supplies harm the environment and human rights?
Across the world, from Africa and Asia to Latin America, a growing number of mining projects has been associated with nature destruction, pollution, labour abuses and conflict, while local communities often shoulder much of the cost and share little of the benefit.
As the scramble for minerals for the energy transition rises to the top of the political agenda, there are mounting calls for international cooperation to ensure production of these resources is sustainable and equitable, alongside a flurry of proposed initiatives for global standards and stronger governance.
Explainer: Why the world is racing to mine critical minerals
Colombia is drumming up support for a legally binding minerals agreement based on the model of global negotiations for a plastic treaty. An alliance of NGOs wants to get the issue onto the agenda of this year’s COP30 climate talks, and experts are calling for a new materials data hub.
The United Nations, which oversees the most advanced efforts to create a global framework for energy transition minerals, insists it remains the best-placed broker for thrashing out global norms, despite a funding crisis.
This month, the International Energy Agency (IEA) joined a chorus of voices calling for more cooperation on the issue. In its latest Critical Minerals Outlook report, it warned of growing risks of disruption to mineral supply chains as the market becomes increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, with China controlling around 70% of the refining of 19 out of 20 strategic minerals analysed by the agency.
Rising copper demand fuels concern over pollution and rights abuses
Meanwhile, since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump has taken a new approach to resource diplomacy, negotiating access to Ukraine’s mineral resources as a condition for American support and eyeing mineral-rich Greenland and Canada.
“It’s climate change, security, development and geopolitical elements intersecting – which I think is why there’s so much appetite and urgency around improving multilateralism to address this really complex issue,” Erica Westenberg, director of governance programmes at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, told Climate Home News.
Plan for an international minerals treaty
Colombia’s proposal for a global minerals treaty is motivated by the aim of rooting out extensive illegal gold mining, a source of environmental destruction and pollution that is threatening people’s health in the Amazon nation.
“[Existing] norms and standards are optional, and this isn’t good enough,” Mauricio Cabrera Leal, Colombia’s vice minister for environmental policy, told a conference at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris earlier this month.
“We need to have a mandatory agreement to assess the whole value chain with transparency and traceability at the international level,” he added.
Colombia plans to put forward a resolution for countries to begin negotiations on a binding minerals treaty at the UN Environment Assembly in December. If approved, countries would then need to decide on the scope of the agreement, Cabrera Leal told Climate Home – an approach that has proved highly contentious and so far unsuccessful in talks for a plastic treaty.
But the idea has received a “good response” from some African and European nations, he added. And others agree with the principle.
A high-level council of former ministers and leaders of international institutions convened by the Paris Peace Forum to reflect on mineral supply chain challenges has also called for an international agreement on resource management and the creation of a separate repository for mineral data.
Justin Vaïsse, director general of the Paris Peace Forum, told the OECD conference it was “now time to think seriously” about these proposals.
Observers in the mining sector caution that any agreement must build on hard-learned lessons and existing best practices, including the need to ensure that affected communities and Indigenous people are at the negotiating table.
An international materials agency?
The co-chairs of the International Resource Panel (IRP), a body of policy experts established by the UN Environment Programme, meanwhile are advocating for the creation of an international materials agency.
This data hub would cover all the materials needed to deliver on global climate and development goals, including critical minerals. It would help make supply chains more transparent and track their environmental implications.
Solar squeeze: US tariffs threaten panel production and jobs in Thailand
Janez Potočnik, the IRP’s co-chair, told Climate Home the proposed agency would “complement” the IEA’s growing work on the security of mineral supplies by considering the impacts of mineral production and consumption models with a mandate that could evolve over time to include international negotiations on materials.
Potočnik said the proposal is backed by the International Chamber of Commerce and the World Economic Forum – demonstrating the private sector’s interest in more transparent data.
UN push for better standards
Last year, UN boss António Guterres convened a panel of governments, international organisations and experts which defined seven principles to underpin the responsible, fair and sustainable extraction of energy transition minerals.
The UN is now expected to release a plan to implement those principles and appoint an advisory group to draft a global framework to make mineral supply chains more transparent, traceable and accountable.
Efforts to define responsible mining are not new. But there are currently around 200 voluntary mining standards and “a lot of them are not the best standards”, said Sascha Raabe, who heads the UN Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) Global Alliance for Responsible and Green Minerals. It aims to bring together governments, the private sector, NGOs and communities to help countries develop sustainability policies that can add value to their resources.
Europe’s lithium rush leaves mineral-rich communities in the dark
UNIDO’s alliance will also work alongside other UN agencies to define a set of concrete environmental, social and governance criteria – such as a living wage – for assessing existing voluntary mining standards, Raabe explained.
“It’s important that the UN set up these criteria to give direction to the private sector and consumers and create a global level playing field,” said Raabe, adding that “the UN is the best forum to bring these global goals together”.
One of the largest efforts to harmonise voluntary mining standards is the Consolidated Mining Standard Initiative, which is being developed by four mining industry groups covering 100 companies. But campaign groups have criticised the industry’s efforts to self-regulate as “weak” and at “risk of creating a race to the bottom”.
Instead, they back the The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance’s standard, which is overseen by a collaborative process including industry, civil society, labour groups and community representatives.
Putting minerals on the COP30 agenda
Campaigners are also pushing for stronger links between the challenges of obtaining minerals for the clean energy transition and the UN’s climate and nature policy processes.
At UN biodiversity talks in Colombia last year, governments agreed to “avoid or, if not possible, minimise, the negative impacts of climate actions on biodiversity”, without singling out transition minerals.
Now a coalition of NGOs is urging the Brazilian COP30 presidency to put ways to tackle the environmental and social risks associated with these minerals on the agenda of the UN climate summit in Belém in November.
Campaigners want governments at COP30 to recognise the risks posed by unmanaged extraction to global climate and biodiversity goals, endorse the work of the UN’s advisory group on responsible sourcing and designate “no-go” mining zones in climate-critical ecosystems and Indigenous territories.
“This is a once-in-a-generation chance for Brazil to lead on climate justice and ensure that the clean energy transition doesn’t come at the expense of frontline communities, the planet’s last intact forests, and other critical ecosystems that should be marked as no-go zones,” said Emily Iona Stewart, head of policy for Global Witness’s transition minerals campaign.
The Brazilian environment ministry and COP30 Presidency did not respond to Climate Home’s requests for comment by the time of publication.
The post Does the world need a global treaty on energy transition minerals? appeared first on Climate Home News.
Does the world need a global treaty on energy transition minerals?
Climate Change
China Briefing 2 October 2025: China’s new pledge; electricity demand slows; steel overcapacity
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing.
China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
China’s first-ever pledge to cut emissions
NEW CLIMATE TARGETS: In a video address to the UN last week, China’s president Xi Jinping personally pledged to cut his nation’s economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions to 7-10% below peak levels by 2035, while “striving to do better”, reported state broadcaster CCTV. Sky News called it a “landmark moment”, saying that this marked the first time China “made a commitment to cut its greenhouse gas emissions”. The announced target, along with other commitments such as expanding wind and solar power capacity to more than six times 2020 levels, will be included in China’s 2035 “nationally determined contribution” (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, which has not yet been submitted, reported BBC News. Carbon Brief published a detailed analysis of the announcement and hosted a webinar with climate policy experts to discuss their assessments. More details of the webinar can be found below.
AMBITION CRITICISM: In an article for Just Security, Sue Biniaz, former US principal deputy special envoy for climate, wrote that “at and around the UN event, the chatter regarding the announcement was generally negative”, adding that the announced target was “even lower than expected”. EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra described China’s new climate pledge as falling “well short of what we believe is both achievable and necessary”, reported Reuters. In response, China accused the EU of “being slow to act on its own climate targets”, according to another Reuters report. The outlet said that Hoekstra’s “criticism of China’s new climate pledges shows ‘double standards and selective blindness’, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday”.
-
Sign up to Carbon Brief’s free “China Briefing” email newsletter. All you need to know about the latest developments relating to China and climate change. Sent to your inbox every Thursday.
MEDIA REACTION: Media outlets including the Guardian and the Times raised questions about the ambition of the target. Similarly, Bloomberg said it was “seen as too modest to put the nation on a path to net-zero and galvanise global climate action”. An editorial in state-run newspaper China Daily, however, called the target a “milestone in the nation’s long-term road map toward green, low-carbon development”. Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, wrote in a comment for the New York Times that China’s targets “may seem tepid”, but “beneath them is a bold wager: that steady action, powered by industrial strength and vision shielded from political volatility, will ultimately do more to contribute to the global climate effort than lofty, fickle promises ever could”.
Electricity demand growth slowed
PRESSURE DROP: The rate of growth in China’s electricity demand slowed in August, with “cooler” weather helping to “take some pressure off the grid”, reported Bloomberg, citing official data. The outlet added that electricity consumption rose 5% in August, compared with 8.6% in July and 5.4% in June. Still, China’s electricity demand in both July and August exceeded 1,000 terawatt hours – the first time this happened globally, said Chinese finance media outlet Cailianpress. According to a report by the China Electricity Council, China’s “electrification rate” has already surpassed that of “major developed economies in Europe and the US”, wrote China Energy Net.
MARKET PRICE: Two coastal provinces, Guangdong and Shandong, have used China’s new market-based pricing system for renewables to “steer clean-energy investment to the areas that suit them best, reported Bloomberg. According to the outlet, Guangdong, which is “surrounded by relatively shallow waters”, offered “generous rates to offshore wind”. In Shandong, the pricing system was used to “correct course and reduce a glut of solar power that has built up over the years”, added the outlet.
Steel to face new controls
CAPACITY CURBS: China has released a work plan for 2025-26 to “ban new steel capacity and reduce production, in the latest move to help balance supply and demand”, reported Bloomberg. The plan came after Beijing promised to cut steel output at the Two Sessions in March, according to the outlet. It also called for “significantly enhancing green, low-carbon and digital development levels” of the country’s steel sector, according to the industry news outlet BJX News. Financial media outlet Caixin said “more than 80% of China’s crude steel production capacity has completed ultra-low-emission retrofits, according to the China Iron and Steel Association”.
ETS EXPANSION: Meanwhile, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued draft allowance plans for the steel, cement and aluminium sectors for 2024 and 2025 in its national emissions trading scheme (ETS), reported Cailian Press. (The ETS was expanded to these sectors from 2024 in a draft policy, published late last year and covered by Carbon Brief. The expansion, which means that the ETS covers 60% of China’s emissions, rather than 40% previously, was confirmed in March.) Meanwhile, a report published by the State Council said that a total of 189m tonnes of carbon dioxide was traded on the ETS in 2024, according to Xinhua.
Typhoon Ragasa
DAMAGES IN ASIA: Nearly two million people in southern China had to be “relocated” after Typhoon Ragasa made landfall in Guangdong province last Wednesday, reported state news agency Xinhua. BBC News described the typhoon as the “world’s strongest storm this year” and said “a month’s worth of rain” was expected in the city of Zhuhai in one day. In the wider Asia-Pacific region, dozens of people were killed, while flights as well as businesses were also strongly affected, said the Financial Times.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Ragasa was intensified by “unusually hot oceans”, which can be linked to climate change, according to “preliminary studies” covered by the Hong Kong Free Press. “Rapid attribution” analysis by the French research group ClimaMeter concluded that cyclones such as Ragasa are around 10% wetter than they would have been in the past, added the outlet. Benjamin Horton, dean of the school of energy and environment at City University of Hong Kong, also linked Ragasa to climate change, saying extreme weather events “should not be happening at such regularity, so late in the season, of such intensity, of such high winds and of such big storm surges”, according to the SCMP.
40%
The share of China’s total solar capacity in 2024 made up by distributed photovoltaics – typically installed on rooftops – according to a report from the International Energy Agency, which said the share was up from 30% four years earlier. The report added that the “stock of electric cars grew by more than 650% over the same period”.
Spotlight
Experts: What China’s new climate pledge means for the world
Last week, president Xi Jinping announced several new pledges that will be included in China’s upcoming 2035 nationally determined contribution (NDC).
Carbon Brief held a webinar with several experts on what the new announcement means for China’s climate trajectory and the global energy transition. Below are the highlights of their answers. A recording of the webinar is available on the Carbon Brief website.
Ryna Cui, associate director and associate research professor at the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability
Our assessment of a plausible high ambition pathway for China [showed it] delivering a 27-31% reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions by 2035…In addition, we also model[led] a current policy pathway for China, which…also achieve[d] a 10-14% reduction…Both scenarios suggest a larger reduction compared to the 7-10% overall emission reduction target.
…
Under our current policy scenario for 2035, wind and solar total installed capacity is over 4,000 gigawatt (GW). It is over 4,700 gigawatt under a high ambition [scenario]. [The target announced by Xi is for 3,600GW by 2035.]
…
The non-fossil share of total primary energy…is 40% [under current policies] and 48% [under high ambition], compared to the 30% target announced [by Xi].
Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst and co-founder at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air
At [China’s] rate of clean-energy growth, there is no more space for…coal, in general, to grow. So if you were to announce targets of 20-30% reduction in carbon dioxide, then you have to recognise that there’s going to be a major downsizing of the coal industry.
That seems to be a decision that China’s leadership is still postponing. Are you going to put reins on this clean-energy boom, or are you going to accept that the coal industry has to start downsizing in a big way?
…
These targets really, to me, show that the leadership was not prepared to resolve that conflict and say that coal is the one that has to give.
Anika Patel, China analyst at Carbon Brief
[In terms of what’s next,] one of the big signals…is COP30. What else will be announced that could signal China’s relative level of climate ambition?
Will there be quantitative targets placed on things like climate finance?…Will there be more announcements around south-south cooperation? What will China’s signaling on fossil fuels – especially coal – in the final COP30 outcome be?
…
At the same time, we’ve got the 15th five-year plan coming up…We’re expecting a new set of overarching targets for 2026-2030, and traditionally there have always been a couple of climate targets [among the plan’s headline targets]. From that, we can expect to start seeing signals about what the level of climate ambition for the next five years will be.
Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute
There has been a very strong alignment now in the Chinese system between its decarbonisation goals and its economic development agenda…I think that strong alignment is what will propel the country to cut more carbon over time.
I also think that when you begin to realise [that]…you will then begin to realise it is not necessarily just the [state-level] EU-China climate relationship…[or] COPs that we should pay attention to. New actors are emerging.
We need to pay attention to BYD [and] CATL. We need to pay attention to [low-carbon commercial and investment activity in] Brazil…[and] Indonesia. Those factors and actors, over the next ten years or so, will begin to drive carbon-emission reduction in a more significant and meaningful way than countries’ NDCs.
Watch, read, listen
‘NEW ENERGY’: A comment on the “high-quality development” of China’s “new energy” sector was published by the Communist party’s Study Times – an official newspaper edited by the central school of the Chinese Communist party – under the byline of Wang Hongzhi, head of the National Energy Administration.
HIGH-LEVEL COMMENT: The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily published an article under the byline Zhong Caiwen, used to indicate party leaders’ views on economic affairs, saying “green development is the defining feature of China’s high-quality economic growth”.
EXTREME WEATHER: Chinese media outlet 21st Century Business Herald conducted an interview with Xu Xiaofeng, former deputy director of the China Meteorological Administration and president of the China Meteorological Service Association, who talked about the “high intensity of extreme weather events” under climate change.
CARBON MARKETS: Ma Aimin, former deputy director of the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, told Jiemian that China’s carbon market (ETS) needed to enhance its “trading activity” and that the next two years will be a “critical period” for voluntary carbon trading (CCERs).
New science
Development policy affects coastal flood exposure in China more than sea-level rise
Nature Climate Change
Exposure to coastal flooding in China over the 21st century will depend more on “policy decisions” than the rate of sea-level rise, according to new research. The authors combined simulations of population and land use changes with flood models that incorporate factors such as sea level rise and storm surges. They said their paper offers a “more nuanced understanding of coastal risks” than other existing assessments.
Spatiotemporal patterns and drivers of wildfire CO2 emissions in China from 2001 to 2022
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Annual CO2 emissions from forest and shrub fires in China decreased over 2001-22, but increased for cropland fires, a new study found. The analysis noted that the upward trend in cropland fire emissions is primarily in the country’s north-east and is “closely linked to region-specific straw-burning policies”. The researchers found that emissions from grassland fires remained relatively stable over the two decades assessed.
China Briefing is compiled by Wanyuan Song and Anika Patel. It is edited by Wanyuan Song and Dr Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to china@carbonbrief.org
The post China Briefing 2 October 2025: China’s new pledge; electricity demand slows; steel overcapacity appeared first on Carbon Brief.
China Briefing 2 October 2025: China’s new pledge; electricity demand slows; steel overcapacity
Since she was a child, Argentine park ranger Natay Collet can remember seeing trucks rolling through her hometown, throwing up dust clouds and piled high with the reddish-brown trunks of the Chaco’s famed quebracho tree.
“You used to know people who lived in the forest. Now, the land belongs to big business owners who come to exploit it,” said Collet, 40, gesturing towards a dusty plain that was once covered by forest in Argentina’s northern province of Chaco.
Collet’s determination to do what she could to save Gran Chaco – the second-biggest forest biome in South America after the Amazon – led her to become a park ranger as the region’s dry, scrubby forest comes under intense pressure from agricultural expansion and illegal logging.
Chaco province alone has lost 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of tree cover since 2001, equivalent to 18% of the area covered by trees in 2000, according to Global Forest Watch. As a whole, the country has lost about 7 million hectares (17.3 million acres) of tree cover over the same period, in tandem with rising output of grains – especially soybeans.
Argentina’s native forests are protected by law – and it backed a commitment by countries at the Glasgow COP26 climate summit to halt forest loss by 2030.
Lula says he is “optimistic” about US support for new rainforest fund
But two years since pro-business libertarian President Javier Milei was elected on pledges to get the country’s unruly finances in order, environmentalists and climate campaigners fear the country’s forests are in growing danger because of sweeping spending cuts for forest protection – including park rangers like Collet.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” she told Climate Home News, describing increasingly precarious working conditions, with rangers’ contracts renewed every three months, low pay and no money for new equipment or repairs.
The budget of the National Parks Administration (APN) fell 34% in real terms between 2023 and 2024, according to a report published by the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), an Argentine NGO.
The APN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
-
In new forest finance plan, 34 nations endorse Brazil’s rainforest fund
The Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership of forest-rich and donor countries backs Brazil’s Tropical Forest Forever Facility, set to be launched at COP30 -
Russia justifies fossil gas use by citing contentious COP28 loophole
In Dubai two years ago, Russia pushed for a clause on “transitional fuels” which its new UN climate plan uses to justify gas consumption -
Zimbabwe forest carbon megaproject generated millions of junk credits
Verra is seeking compensation for offsets issued “in excess” by the controversial Kariba REDD+ scheme. But the registry’s track record in obtaining remedies raises concerns
Deforestation jumps under Milei
Milei, an ideological ally of US President Donald Trump who took office in December 2023, faces a crucial midterm election this month that could make it even easier for him to push environmental protection cutbacks through by bolstering his support in Congress, where his government currently holds a minority.
Environmentalists say the impact of his government’s spending cuts and other policies is already becoming evident, contributing to an increase in deforestation across the country last year, including in the northern provinces that straddle the Gran Chaco region, which covers about 1 million square km (386,000 square miles) in total across Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia.
Argentine government data indicates a loss of around 254,000 hectares nationwide in 2024, up 34% from 2023, despite a court injunction completely banning deforestation in Chaco since August 2024. Neighbouring northern provinces are also deforestation hotspots.
Milei has in the past called climate change a hoax and earlier this year he expressed interest in withdrawing Argentina from the Paris Agreement. Officials from his government, however, have said his administration will honour its environmental agreements and its commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The Subsecretariat of the Environment did not reply to a request for comment.
Milei scrapped the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, downgrading it to the Secretariat of Tourism, Environment and Sports. That move led to a decrease of almost 80%, in real terms, in the environmental budget between 2023 and 2024, according to FARN.
And in an October 2024 decree, Milei eliminated the national Fund for the Environmental Protection of Native Forests, making less funding available for conservation, sustainable use and forest restoration projects.
International credibility at risk
Under Milei, the “dismantling” of the state apparatus has “encouraged institutional permissiveness over deforestation”, said Ana di Pangracio, interim executive director of FARN.
“The failure to comply with international commitments and national laws affects Argentina’s international credibility, hinders access to climate and biodiversity financing, and affects the conditions for entering international markets that are of interest to Argentina,” Di Pangracio added.
Last year, Milei attempted to modify the country’s Forest Law as part of a broader reform bill, seeking to loosen the legislation’s controls on deforestation on certain land, but eventually dropped the plan in order to garner sufficient support from opposition lawmakers to pass the wider measures.
Explainer: Brazil’s “right answer” to forest finance turns to markets to keep rainforest standing
“Axe-breaker” tree no match for chainsaws
The biggest driver of deforestation in northern Argentina is agriculture: mainly soy farming and cattle grazing, which has been pushed northwards as the best arable land is used up further south.
Decades of “systematic clearing” have taken a heavy toll on Chaco’s emblematic quebracho tree – meaning axe-breaker due to its hard wood, said Collet, the park ranger. Along with its wood, the tree is exploited for its tannins, which are used for curing leather products such as luxury handbags and car upholstery.
Despite the 2024 deforestation ban, there are signs that trees continue to be cut down in Chaco.
During a July visit to the town of Juan José Castelli, which lies just outside the El Impenetrable national park, a large truck loaded with tree trunks was parked up in front of the police station – apparently confiscated along with its load.
In May, Governor Leandro Zdero hailed the arrival of new satellite-equipped trucks, which he said had helped forest service officials halt an illegal deforestation incident.
But environmental activists told Climate Home that for the most part, those responsible for deforestation, including large-scale landowners, do so with impunity in a province plagued by corruption.
Struggle to protect Indigenous land
For Chaco’s forest defenders, who include members of Indigenous communities, there have been some small victories.
In August, the provincial government partially vetoed a law that had been heavily criticised in April for lessening fines and allowing the use of illegally deforested timber for profit, creating an incentive for illicit tree-cutting.
Bigger battles continue, however.
Óscar Villalba, a member of the Moqoit Indigenous community, has been fighting in the courts to secure his people’s land rights since 2012, when the 308,000 hectares (761,000 acres) of the forested Reserva Grande in western Chaco were recognised as Indigenous land jointly belonging to the Moqoit, Wichí and Toba – or Qom – communities.
Despite the recognition by a provincial Indigenous rights body, governors have twice blocked court rulings that supported the Indigenous communities’ exclusive rights to live on and work the land, Villalba said, adding that in the meantime, loggers have had free rein to encroach on the land and cut down trees.
The provincial government did not reply to requests for comment.
“For many years we have been travelling, walking, denouncing, demanding that the government grant us hearings,” Villalba said, struggling to hold back tears as he stood by the side of a dusty road near the reserve. “There is no response. But they are cutting down trees to their heart’s content, day and night.”
The post Milei’s budget cuts fuel deforestation fears in Argentina’s Chaco appeared first on Climate Home News.
Milei’s budget cuts fuel deforestation fears in Argentina’s Chaco
South Asian migrant workers building renewable energy projects in Saudi Arabia face exploitation and labour abuses, including excessive hours, high recruitment fees and average monthly salaries of just $370, a report published by a global rights organisation showed on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, is investing heavily to become a major player in the global clean energy transition and hit net zero by 2060, seeking to reduce its economic dependence on oil as the world shifts away from fossil fuels.
But as the kingdom races to transform its economy with solar and green hydrogen projects, the migrants building them are exposed to abusive hiring practices, low pay, excessive working hours, unsafe conditions and have no way to seek redress, according to the report by the London-headquartered Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC).
The researchers interviewed 31 Nepali and three Bangladeshi workers from nine renewables projects, including solar farms and the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project. They found more than half of the workers had been subjected to forced labour.
-
NGOs urge Brazil to prevent fossil fuel capture of COP30 climate summit
More than 200 civil society groups are asking Brazil’s COP30 team to commit to “polluter-free” climate negotiations in Belém -
Russia justifies fossil gas use by citing contentious COP28 loophole
In Dubai two years ago, Russia pushed for a clause on “transitional fuels” which its new UN climate plan uses to justify gas consumption -
Nigeria gives fossil gas a bigger role as “transition fuel” in climate plan
Officials say the country needs time and money to ramp up renewables, but critics say betting on gas is a risky strategy that could prolong the “oil curse”
Saudi Arabia, home to millions of foreign workers, has long been criticised over its rights record for migrant labourers. Trade unions are banned, there is no minimum wage for migrants and the kingdom still enforces the “kafala” system of foreign labourer sponsorship.
A study by another rights group last year found similar labour violations involving migrants working on renewables projects in the United Arab Emirates.
“Saudi Arabia feels like a jail. We’re like prisoners … They brought us here and dumped us in the desert,” a Nepali worker on the Al Kahfah Solar PV Plant told BHRRC, which said the workers’ vulnerability was exacerbated by the isolated desert locations of many of the energy transition developments and project-by-project hiring by sub-contractors.
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, the solar project’s developer, did not reply to the researchers’ requests for comment.
‘Alarming’ heat exposure
All of the workers interviewed were charged non-refundable recruitment fees averaging $1,600. Salaries as low as $250 per month in some instances pushed many of the migrants to work extra hours to send money home – many recounting seven-day weeks.
More than half of them reported suffering wage theft, such as deductions for taking breaks – despite often working in blistering heat above 50 degrees Celsius.
“One of the most alarming patterns of abuse was heat exposure,” said Catriona Fraser, the report’s lead researcher, adding that the abuses they had identified appeared to be “systemic and exacerbated by the structure of the industry”.
They suffered heat-related illness, including fainting, nosebleeds and – in one case – a suspected heart attack that led to death at NEOM Green Hydrogen Project, the report said.
On a few occasions, workers staged protests – which are banned in Saudi Arabia – to denounce their conditions, including at the Sudair Solar PV plant. But Fraser said protesters had been punished, with several dismissed and deported.
Neither of those two projects responded to requests for comment by the report’s authors.
‘Voices must be surfaced, not silenced’
Fraser said the researchers’ findings should increase scrutiny of the kingdom’s efforts to become a major player in global clean energy supply chains, including exporting renewable power to Europe.
“In its bid to host the 2034 FIFA Men’s Football World Cup, the country spotlights its NEOM host-city and the green hydrogen plant where we identified abuse, yet makes no mention of the migrants whose labour is helping power the transition. Their voices must be surfaced, not silenced,” she said.
Rights campaigners have criticised the decision to hold the World Cup in Saudi Arabia due to labour practices including the “kafala” system, which binds workers to their employers, despite 2021 reforms that allowed some migrant workers to leave the country without permission.
Saudi Arabia’s Human Resources and Social Development Ministry did not respond to a request for comment by Climate Home News. The kingdom has previously rejected criticism of its human rights record.
-
Digging beyond oil: Saudi Arabia bids to become a hub for energy transition minerals
The top crude exporter is using its oil riches to position itself as a major player in clean energy supply chains. Investors are interested, but hurdles remain -
The company tracking energy transition minerals back to the mines
Australian firm Source Certain traces minerals back to the exact point where they were extracted from the Earth – a technique that could help make cleantech supply chains more accountable -
Major financiers neglect energy transition risks from mining as demand booms
Financial institutions are lacking safeguards to prevent harms caused by mining the resources needed for the energy transition, analysis of the sector’s financing finds
BHRRC said several global investors were helping to finance the projects at which it identified labour abuses, including Standard Chartered, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase.
Asked to comment by BHRRC, HSBC said “we follow a clear set of sustainability risk policies which guide our approach to financing and include human rights considerations”.
Standard Chartered told the researchers it could not comment on specific cases but outlined its processes for evaluating environmental and social (E&S) risks when providing financial services to clients.
JPMorgan Chase did not respond to their request for comment.
Fraser urged all the companies involved in the projects identified in the research to “commit to investigating these violations”.
“[The rollout] of renewables must be fast, but not at the expense of the human rights of workers and communities,” the report said.
Main image: A view of the cityscape in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Benmansour)
The post Migrant workers building Saudi Arabia’s green future face exploitation, report finds appeared first on Climate Home News.
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/10/02/migrant-workers-building-saudi-arabias-green-future-face-abuses-and-exploitation-report-finds/
Politics and Prevention – Fentanyl at the Center of U.S. Security and Leadership
What Is a Third Place and Why Do They Matter?
Palantir (PLTR) Stock Nears Highs with Boeing Partnership and Steady U.S. Growth
Spanish-language misinformation on renewable energy spreads online, report shows
The toxic gas flares fuelling Nigeria’s climate change – BBC News
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Spanish-language misinformation on renewable energy spreads online, report shows
-
Climate Change Videos2 years ago
The toxic gas flares fuelling Nigeria’s climate change – BBC News
-
Climate Change2 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases1 year ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change1 year ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Carbon Footprint1 year agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits
-
Greenhouse Gases2 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Renewable Energy3 months ago
US Grid Strain, Possible Allete Sale