Research and Information

“Stretch and transform” for energy justice: Indigenous advocacy for institutional transformative change of electricity in British Columbia, Canada

This study offers insights from a unique case of meso-level collective action by First Nations in British Columbia, Canada, aimed at transformative electricity institutional change. We collate regulatory and advocacy text to...

The effect of residential solar on energy insecurity among low- to moderate-income households

This study evaluates whether residential rooftop solar can serve as a preventative solution to energy insecurity among low- to moderate-income households. We found that solar leads to large, robust and salient reductions...

A Bright Future: Growing the First Nations Clean Energy Workforce

A First Nations workforce could be essential to help meet the unique pattern of demand generated by the clean energy transition. First Nations participation in the energy sector has been growing –...

How clean energy agreement-making in Australia is raising the bar on benefit and co-ownership arrangements for Australian Traditional Owners

In Australia, there are now many examples of Traditional Owners developing clean energy projects in partnership with clean energy developers and companies. This discussion paper looks at how Australian Traditional Owners are...

How costly is a community benefit agreement for a private project developer?

Community benefit agreements (CBAs) negotiated in Canada are legally binding through contract law and set out obligations for project developers and local communities. Also referred to as impact and benefit agreements, CBAs are...

Heat in Homes Survey Report 2025

Some 90% of First Nations who responded to a recent Heat Survey say their homes get too hot and they're struggling to afford their energy bills. First Nations are also twice as...

Enabling Indigenous-centred decision-making for a just energy transition: Lessons from community consultation and consent in the circumpolar Arctic

Governance and decision-making that uphold the rights, interests, knowledges, and values of Indigenous peoples and land-connected communities are increasingly recognised as critical components of a just energy transition. Despite the unprecedented inclusion...

Why are solar microgrids not the norm in remote Central Australia?

Energy insecurity prevails in remote First Nations households, and there is limited research on the links between diesel-fired energy generation and health in remote central Australia. Researchers have identified a need to...

Exploring shared prosperity: Indigenous leadership and partnerships for a just transition

The private sector plays a critical role in the clean energy transition – as do Indigenous Peoples. If the opportunity of a just transition is to be realised, private sector and state...

Community Energy: Hope and Headwinds

First Nations communities have indicated a desire to actively participate in the energy transition. Grid-connected community energy projects in Australia face significant challenges that innovative approaches to behind-the-meter asset investment can avoid....

Mapping critical minerals projects and their intersection with Indigenous peoples' land rights in Australia

This paper finds 57.8% of critical minerals projects in Australia are located where First Nations peoples have a right to negotiate. Including native title claims, these rights are available for 79.2% of...

A just energy transition for Indigenous peoples: From ideal deliberation to fairness in Canada and Australia

It is crucial to question who has the authority to mandate renewable energy projects and who their beneficiaries are. In the energy field, power has remained, for the most part, in the...

Summer Heat Survey 2024

Exposure to high heat is a major threat to human health. More people die in Australia from heatwaves than all other extreme events combined. With climate change, Australia is becoming hotter. Very...

Re-righting renewable energy research with Indigenous communities in Canada

The global call to address climate change and advance sustainable development has created rapid growth in research, investment, and policymaking regarding the renewable energy transition of Indigenous communities. From a rightsholder perspective,...

Geographies of regulatory disparity underlying Australia’s energy transition

Remote communities in Australia are less likely to have comprehensive regulatory protections for access to electricity and the services it provides. In a disconcerting measure of indifference, remote settlements are 18% more...

Energy justice of sociotechnical imaginaries of light and life in the bush

Australia’s story of the energy transition is most visible in the uptake of large-scale solar and wind farms or now prolific rooftop solar. Less visible is the role of renewable energy in...

A socio-spatial analysis of Australia's critical minerals endowment and policy implications

Australia's Critical Minerals Strategy promises to accrue benefits locally by building partnerships with host communities and First Nations peoples. This research highlights that some of Australia's most disadvantaged areas host the highest...

Optimising positive impacts for First Nations through reliable and cost competitive renewable energy projects

The combination of First Nations partnership, governance and equity is unequivocally the factor that unlocks positive impacts for First Nations communities and projects. That's the conclusion of a new briefing paper by...

How to make net zero happen: Mobilisation Report

It is estimated that 43% of all clean energy infrastructure required to get Australia to net zero emissions will be sited on land under the care or control of First Nations. First...

Indigenous legal forms and governance structures in renewable energy: Assessing the role and perspectives of First Nations economic development corporations

In a settler colonial context like Canada, renewable energy transitions and projects will take place on or near Indigenous traditional territories. In the emerging body of knowledge around Indigenous community involvement in...

Connected: rooftop solar, prepay and reducing energy insecurity in remote Australia

Australia is a world leader in per-capita deployment of rooftop solar PV with more than three million households realising benefits including reduced energy bills and improved energy security. However, these benefits are...

Disconnected during disruption: Energy insecurity of Indigenous Australian prepay customers during the COVID-19 pandemic

In Australia, early pandemic safeguards against electricity disconnection were successful in temporarily protecting most people. However, their application was uneven. For remote-living Indigenous community residents, who are required by policy or elect...

Community Ownership of Renewable Energy: How it Works in Nine Countries

The challenges and opportunities for local and Indigenous ownership of renewable energy are manifold. But if we are to avoid the situation that arose with local communities being marginalised and excluded from...

Advancing Aboriginal Interests in the New South Wales Renewable Energy Transition

As the NSW Government steers the transition of the economy to renewable energy there is a unique opportunity for Aboriginal communities and their economic and land interests and aspirations to be advanced. The...

Aboriginal Population and Climate Change in Australia: Implications for Health and Adaptation Planning

This research paper finds First Nations populations in NSW are disproportionately exposed to a range of climate extremes in heat, rainfall and drought, and this disproportionate exposure is predicted to increase with...

Renewable Energy Development And The Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth): The Fairness Of Validating Future Acts Associated With Renewable Energy Projects

Increasing demand, innovations in technology, and extensions to electricity grid infrastructure are likely to lead to a growth in renewable energy development on native title land and water. The likelihood that native...

Renewable hydrogen: Will First Nations people benefit?

First Nations peoples' land is essential to making renewable hydrogen. In this paper, published by Australian Environment Review, researchers from the ANU and Original Power discuss a few ways to ensure First Nations people...

Energy insecurity during temperature extremes in remote Australia

Indigenous communities in remote Australia face dangerous temperature extremes. These extremes are associated with increased risk of mortality and ill health. For many households, temperature extremes increase both their reliance on those...

Aboriginal Community Governance on the Frontlines and Faultlines in the Black Summer Bushfires

The 2019–20 ‘Black Summer’ bushfires were unprecedented in their size, scale, and devastation. It was widely acknowledged that the bushfires disproportionally impacted Aboriginal people both in terms of the population of people...

Clean Energy Agreement Making on First Nations Land

The paper explains the basic building blocks of how to develop an enduring relationship with First Nations people through ‘sharing the benefits’. It is an invitation to renewable energy companies to embrace...

Reconciliation through renewable energy? A survey of Indigenous communities, involvement, and peoples in Canada

Reconciliation is about the genuine restructuring and transformation of the relationships between Indigenous and settler people. Although renewable energy has not been inherently positive for Indigenous peoples, Indigenous communities in Canada have...

Scaling up: Renewable energy on Aboriginal lands in north west Australia

The prospect of large-scale renewable energy projects being developed on lands over which Traditional Owners hold rights and interests is likely to present risks in the distribution of socio-economic and environmental impacts,...

Renewable energy projects on the Indigenous estate: Identifying risks and opportunities of utility-scale and dispersed models

Australia’s Pilbara and Kimberley regions have very high rates of Indigenous land tenure, whilst hosting some of world’s best co-located solar and wind energy resources. Simultaneously, technological advances in energy transmission and...

Ensuring Indigenous Benefit from Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects: Drawing on Experience from Extractive Industry Agreement Making

In the coming decades Australia is set to see a dramatic expansion in renewable energy projects. It is likely that many of these will occur on land subject to Indigenous rights and...