Événement Consultation
Expert Conversation on Human Rights in the Life Cycle of Renewable Energy and Critical Minerals
21 Mai 2025
10:30 – 12:30
Lieu: Palais des Nations, Room V
Organisation: Procédures spéciales du Conseil des droits de l’homme, Geneva Environment Network
This expert conversation organized by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change in collaboration with the Geneva Environment Network will build on a call for inputs which was issued in December 2024 in order to inform the thematic report of the UN Special Rapporteur to the United Nations General Assembly 80th session. This conversation will gather all interested experts including from Member States, UN agencies, civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, peasants, academia and the private sector to participate in this conversation.
About this Event
In her upcoming report to the UN General Assembly, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change seeks to synthesise and analyse a varied body of evidence (from across the natural and social sciences, including Indigenous science and other knowledge systems) of the positive and negative human rights impacts of different sources, scales and stages to renewable energy development, throughout their full life cycle, including the extraction and re-use of critical minerals.
On that basis, the report will seek to clarify States’ international human rights obligations, individually and as part of international cooperation, as well as business responsibility, to support a just transition while enhancing the protection of everyone’s human right to a healthy environment and the prevention of foreseeable negative human rights impacts of certain climate mitigation approaches. The obligations will be clarified giving due consideration to: the need to scale up global action and support in addressing climate change, including in averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change; and the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, including the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances and in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, all in pursuit of the objectives of the Convention and the Paris Agreement.
The report will identify good practices, strategies and policies at all levels that contribute to the promotion and protection of all human rights and poverty alleviation throughout the life cycle of renewable energy and critical minerals, with a view to contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goals 13 (climate action) and 14 (life below water).
The UN Special Rapporteur will aim to make constructive and concrete recommendations on human rights-based, gender-responsive, age-sensitive, disability-inclusive and risk-informed approaches to renewable energy development and critical minerals throughout their life cycle, which enhance the protection of all human rights, including everyone’s human right to a healthy environment, and prevent discrimination, in the context of the just transition.
This expert conversation will build on a call for inputs which was issued in December 2024 in order to inform the thematic report of the UN Special Rapporteur to the United Nations General Assembly 80th session. The call for inputs is now closed and available on the UN Special Rapporteur’s webpage.
Presenter
Elisa MORGERA
UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change
Highlights
Video
Live from Palais des Nations