Metals and minerals form the backbone of low-carbon energy technologies like solar panels, grid infrastructure and car batteries.

Yet, in many cases, people live on or near the lands where copper, lithium, nickel and other materials are extracted to meet growing energy demand. What does the mining boom mean for them?

More than half of mines extracting “energy transition minerals” are located on or near Indigenous lands, according to a 2022 study by researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia. That’s 2,700 mining projects worldwide.

Until now, many of those forests, grasslands and mountains have remained intact because of Indigenous peoples’ stewardship—a raft of studies show that Indigenous territories have outsized biodiversity.

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