When we first started doing this quite a few years ago, we're like, surely you can just put solar on the roofs and then we're done, right? 

Indigenous people risk being left behind in the clean energy transition without investment in community-led projects, particularly in regional and remote areas.

Every energy minister in Australia joined First Nations clean energy leaders in Adelaide to launch the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy on Friday.

Acknowledging First Nations have specific rights and interests needs to be included under community benefit principles in the Future Made in Australia Bill.

Australia's race to net-zero emissions by 2050 means that First Nations groups are becoming key partners in sustainable wealth-creation projects.

Australia’s transition to clean energy “can and will” play a role in driving better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen recently told the National Press Club.

All Energy Ministers in Australia have now endorsed the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy framework. The Strategy will be released before the end of 2024.

It seems everyone now gets the energy transition can't happen without us.

Unlike any other industry, it's normal now to talk about First Nations participation in and benefits from the clean energy industry.

Our members of the First Nations Clean Energy Network have worked hard to make this happen.

But the journey, as we know, doesn't stop here. There's much to be done.

SPEAKERS: Karrina Nolan & Joe Morrison

From the domestic landscape to further afield, we see a major shift happening around the world.

Accelerated by the global clean energy transition away from polluting fossil fuels, First Nations rights and interests in tenure and land and sea management are increasingly changing the story.

The recognition of the key role that First Nations play in clean energy and economic transition efforts is evident in major policy shifts.

We must continue to stick together to reinforce and drive that change.

SPEAKERS: Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Tania Pouwhare, Paul Nalau, Daphne Kay, Karrina Nolan (Facilitator)

We can't simply swap one kind of energy for another without transforming the systems that go with them.

We need to bring a different mindset or we run the risk of repeating the mistakes of the past.