Construction of the Jinbi Solar Project on Yindjibarndi Ngurra (country) in Western Australia is set to begin after Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation successfully reached financial close and signed a 30-year Power Purchase Agreement with Rio Tinto.

It is hard to imagine a potentially more impactful investment than partnering with First Nations communities to develop a clean energy project in regional or remote Australia.

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.

The only way to secure the additional benefits along the supply chain is to have First Nations groups as shareholders. With equity or joint ownership comes respect and being taken seriously.