On Sunday 23 November, the Government published a new Critical Minerals Strategy for the UK. This strategy has been long-awaited: back in April, CJC joined partners in calling for the Government to centre justice and accountability in UK critical minerals policy. In this briefing, we made the case for a strategy that would ensure demand reduction, economic and supply chain justice and corporate responsibility.
Unfortunately, the strategy released over the weekend has failed to fully deliver on the priorities we laid out and, therefore, fails in achieving its own goal of delivering a robust approach to securing sustainable supply chains.
Warm words and weak promises will not ensure corporate responsibility or a just transition.
Whilst the new strategy does recognise that ‘some critical mineral supply chains are associated with significant ESG harms, including human rights abuses, biodiversity loss, deforestation and corruption’, naming the problem is not enough. Given the wealth of evidence highlighting the extensive negative human and enviromental threats through the critical mineral supply chain in Europe and globally, this wording is disingenuous
Similarly, vague promises as contained in the strategy will not ensure real corporate responsibility and are not sufficient to deliver a just transition in line with international obligations.
The Government says that it will ‘promote improved governance, increased supply chain transparency and greater adoption of responsible business practices that protect the local environment and surrounding communities’. However, the ‘promotion’ of improved governance and responsible business practices is not enough. The Government must require and deliver significant structural changes in response to an industry that is riddled with severe human rights violations.
Most concerningly, the Government reiterates previous statements that it ‘expects all UK companies to respect human rights’ and that it ‘encourages due diligence in supply chains’, this too is not enough. Expectations, encouragement and other voluntary guidelines have been relied on for too long and they have failed.
The strategy also fails to confirm the need for social and environmental provisions within critical mineral trade agreements. Without concrete action to protect those affected by the critical mineral industry, these agreements may well exacerbate and deepen injustices and environmental devastation.
It is time for the UK to mandate human rights and environmental due diligence in business operations and across the full value chain and ensure that there are real consequences when companies fail to prevent harm from happening. This must include harms happening here in the UK and abuses being committed against people and the planet throughout our global supply chains.
Another blaring omission is the fact that the strategy makes no reference to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, ISDS is a feature of over 80 UK trade and investment agreements and is being used by mining and extraction companies around the world to sue governments for policies which aim to protect human rights and the environment but may limit corporate profits. Right now, the UK Government itself is being sued by a mining company for refusing to approve a new coal mine on climate grounds. ISDS must be excluded from all trade and investment agreements.
The Responsible Business Conduct Review must be used to deliver real change.
The UK Government and UK companies must take real action in response to serious human rights abuses and environmental devastation in critical mineral supply chains, not just because these risks threaten the security of our supply chains, but because they threaten the lives of families and workers and the environment we all share. Such action must also be gender responsive as we know that critical mineral extraction has disproportionate impacts on women and girls.
Whilst this new strategy has failed to provide adequate commitments to protect human rights and the environment, there remains a window of opportunity for the Government to prevent environmental devastation and human rights abuse in critical mineral supply chains:
As the Government reiterates in the new Critical mineral strategy, DBT is currently reviewing the UK’s approach to responsible business conduct. CJC has been engaging actively with the Government to support this process with the hope that it will lead to a meaningful commitment to implement stronger legislation that mandates both human rights and environmental due diligence in the format of a Business Human Rights and Environment Act. However, we are concerned that the criteria we previously laid out for this review are not all being met, and particularly that there is still no clarity on when the outcomes, methodology and evidence considered as part of this review will be made publicly available.
Therefore, we continue to urge the responsible ministers to:
Deliver on the recommendations made in our previous joint briefing on justice and accountability in UK critical minerals policy. In particular:
- Create a cross-government plan for resilient critical minerals supply chains which includes limiting extraction and committing to circular economy principles
- Ensure critical minerals agreements contain commitments to the Paris Agreement, as well as core UN and ILO human rights and labour rights conventions and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- Legislate to pass a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, creating a legal requirement for UK companies, financial institutions and the public sector to prevent human rights abuses and environmental harm in their operations, subsidiaries and value chains.
Additionally and urgently, the Government must:
- Confirm when the outcomes of the Responsible Business Conduct review will be made publicly available and what future opportunities civil society, trade unions and rightsholders will have to contribute knowledge and insight into the design of UK responsible business conduct policy.
- Commit to ensuring that the methodology used, evidence reviewed and priorities considered within the Responsible Business Conduct review are made transparent.
Our calls for urgent and concrete action are also echoed by our partners:
“UK Critical Minerals Strategy will fuel global injustices”, say mining-affected communities – London Mining Network
“The UK’s critical minerals strategy falls short on rights and climate” – Trade Justice Movement
“Beyond buzzwords, the UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy completely fails to lay out a plan for fair and reciprocal partnerships with resource-rich countries in the global south.” – Global Justice Now.
