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 hands of settler nations institutions and private energy companies. Although renewable energy resources are mostly located on Indigenous traditional territories, not all Indigenous communities benefit from the energy transition. The fact that Indigenous peoples are given only a limited voice or power over the transformation of their ancestral territories puts them in a particularly challenging position regarding their participation in the energy transition. Indeed, defending their interests is complex, due to the vagueness and ambiguity surrounding the question of Indigenous national sovereignty and self-determination in Australia and Canada.

This paper, A just energy transition for Indigenous peoples: From ideal deliberation to fairness in Canada and Australia (published 2024), by Fabienne Rioux-Gobeil and Annick Thomassin from the Australian National University, considers who benefits from energy projects and who bears the consequences.

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Thanks for use of the photo Karsten Würth 

Access to energy is a fundamental right. Yet land critical to Australia’s aspirations for becoming a green energy superpower are among the worst served by today’s electricity retail regulations.

Norman Frank Jupurrurla from Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory got rooftop solar on his home, but it wasn't easy.

Many of the big wind and solar farms planned to help Australia achieve net zero emissions by 2050 will be built on the lands and waters of First Nations peoples. More than half of the projects that will extract critical minerals overlap with Indigenous-held lands.

In Tennant Creek, the sun shines about 300 days of the year but for many in the Indigenous community, that energy isn’t being put to good use in the home.

Rooftop solar can reduce energy insecurity and improve wellbeing among First Nations households pre-paying for electricity in the Northern Territory.

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 unevenly distributed. Research shows First Nations residents of public housing in remote Australia using prepay metering experience frequent ‘self-disconnection’ from energy services, a known indicator of energy insecurity. Upfront capital costs and an absence of local regulations codifying the ability to connect solar PV have long locked out these households from realising benefits of energy transition in regions host to world class renewable energy generation potential. This article describes early experiences of those residents among the first to install and grid-connect rooftop solar to prepay in Australia’s remote Northern Territory. In addition to reduced electricity expenditures, rooftop solar PV mitigates experiences of energy insecurity through reducing the incidence of involuntary ‘self-disconnection’ due to inability to pay. Support for rooftop solar for prepay households can alleviate frequent exposure to disconnection, bringing multiple co-benefits. Policy responses should focus on reducing barriers to realising the benefits of rooftop PV for priority communities, including First Nations families living in public housing using prepay.

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By Bradley Riley, Lee V. White, Simon Quilty, Thomas Longden, Norman Frank Jupurrurla, Serena Morton Nabanunga & Sally Wilson (2023) Connected: rooftop solar, prepay and reducing energy insecurity in remote Australia, Australian Geographer, DOI: 10.1080/00049182.2023.2214959

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 title holders and claimants will benefit from this development will depend in part upon the legal regime that governs native title.

The prevailing legal regime governing renewable energy development on native title land and water involves two principal alternatives to permitting development: voluntary land use agreements and compulsory government acquisition of native title.

While the procedures associated with these alternatives afford native title holders and claimants more procedural protection than some commentators have suggested, they fail to attain the standard of ‘free, prior, and informed consent’ prescribed by international best practice and the philosophical and moral arguments that underpin that standard.

To remedy this failure, the Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth) should be amended to place less weight on economic and similar considerations when authorising the compulsory acquisition of native title for renewable energy development, or prohibit the compulsory acquisition of native title generally, except for in certain exceptional circumstances.

While this paper focuses on renewable energy in particular, a number of its conclusions could apply to issues that attenuate native title generally.

Author: Maynard, G. (2022), Renewable energy development and the Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth): The fairness of validating future acts associated with renewable energy projects (Working Paper No. 143/2022), Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University

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Thanks for use of the photo by Angie Warren on Unsplash

Amid conversations on climate change and developing a sustainable future, The First Nations Clean Energy Network fights for the rights and elevates the voices of First Peoples.

The First Nations Clean Energy Network (the Network) supports communities and businesses in developing clean energy projects with First Nations people at the heart. Projects will seek to provide employment opportunities and economic benefits, along with protecting sacred sites, empowering Native Title rights, and caring for Country. The Network developments will range from small community-based projects to large scale, export focussed initiatives.