The Green Energy Transition: Navigating Land Use and Land Rights in the Shift from Fossil Fuels

By Beverly Longid

Global Land Forum

Bogota, Colombia

Day 3: June 18, 2025

Plenary Session:

The Green Energy Transition: Navigating Land Use and Land Rights in the Shift from Fossil Fuels

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Yes, the Philippines is at the center of a mineral rush, especially for nickel, driven by the global demand for so-called “green technologies” like electric vehicles and batteries. States and corporations frame this as part of a “just energy transition.” But what does this really mean for Indigenous Peoples?

For us, it means displacement, destruction of our ancestral lands, persecution, intensified militarization, and bombings of our communities.

How just is “just”? Transition from where and for whom? Indigenous communities, who have long been stewards of forests and watersheds, are now being sacrificed for an extractive model dressed up as climate action.

Take Mindoro and Palawan as examples:

In Mindoro, large-scale nickel mining continues despite strong opposition from the Mangyan Indigenous Peoples. Their free prior informed consent (FPIC) has been repeatedly bypassed or manipulated.

In Palawan, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, nickel mining projects threaten the ancestral lands and livelihoods of the Pala’wan Indigenous Peoples and the island’s fragile ecology.

This pattern is not isolated. Across the country, Indigenous Peoples face similar threats. Indigenous leaders who resist are vilified, in many cases criminalized, designated as terrorists, or accused of financing terrorism, or worse, killed.

To make matters worse, the Supreme Court recently ruled against local governments issuing ordinances banning open-pit mining or imposing mining moratoriums because this is beyond their power and against the national mining law.

In response, we are organizing from the ground up through grassroots campaigns and national platforms. We strengthen Indigenous-led resistance through education, legal defense, direct action, engaging domestic and international human rights mechanisms, and global solidarity. We expose the greenwashing of these destructive projects and assert that any genuine solution to the climate crisis must uphold Indigenous rights, protect ecosystems, and prioritize life over profit.

We are still pushing for a moratorium on large-scale destructive mining in Indigenous Peoples’ lands and territories while lobbying for a new mining bill that replaces the pro-corporate Mining Act of 1995, expands decision-making with affected communities, upholds free prior informed consent (FPIC), and reclaims sovereignty over our natural resources.

We hope that the Global Land Forum and the International Land Coalition support our struggle to protect our lands and territories. Thank you.

Closing statement:

Proposed Pathway to make the Global Energy System Equitable and Sustainable

One actionable pathway is for states, mining companies, and financial institutions to fully uphold the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, including our right to say no or withdraw consent to any projects that adversely impact our lands, territories, and rights. This must go hand in hand with recognizing our right to self-determination, respecting our self-governance systems, and ensuring gender-balanced participation in all decision-making processes that affect us.

Related to this,

1. States must enact strong laws and policies that guarantee this right, ensure effective monitoring, and impose real penalties and punishment for violations of FPIC or use threats, coercion, or manipulation to obtain it.

2. Create an accessible, independent, and culturally appropriate grievance and redress mechanism that is available throughout the life cycle of any project.

3. Transparency is crucial. States and companies must disclose environmental and human rights risks, and genuinely support sustainable development that benefits communities.

4. Voluntary standards are not enough. Companies must be legally required not only to prevent harm but also to restore damaged ecosystems and rehabilitate communities affected by mining.

Only then can we speak of a just transition, one that does not sacrifice Indigenous Peoples in the name of “green” progress, but instead upholds our rights, our dignity, and our future.