First Nations in Western Australia can respond to the state government's proposed guidelines for setting community benefits from renewable energy projects.

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 of Indigenous peoples in resource governance, it is unclear how community consultation and consent can effectively support Indigenous-centred decision-making.

This paper, Enabling Indigenous-centred decision-making for a just energy transition? Lessons from community consultation and consent in the circumpolar Arctic (published in 2025), by Julia Loginova, Mia Landauer, Juha Joona, Ranjan Datta and Tanja Joona, variously from universities in Australia, Sweden, Finland and Canada, provides a review of community experiences with consultation and consent across the Arctic and sub-Arctic region which along with other ‘resource geographies’ are increasingly affected by transition minerals mining and renewable energy infrastructure.

Key themes identified in the review include:

1. limitations of state-and company-led community consultation and consent;
2. practices of Indigenous-centred (Indigenous-led, Indigenous-benefiting and Indigenous-informed) decision-making; and
3. barriers to Indigenous-centred decision-making.

Read the paper

The federal government has moved the submission date for responses to its First Nations Clean Energy Strategy consultation paper.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water have published a notice of proposal to declare an area in the Southern Ocean region off Victoria and South Australia, historically referred to as the Portland area. Consultation is now open on the suitability of offshore renewable energy infrastructure in the Commonwealth waters extending offshore from Warrnambool, Victoria to Port MacDonnell, South Australia.

Next week, community members in the Pilbara will be asked for their input into a plan for First Nations people to play a central role in the transition to renewable energy.