The I2S Team is just back from the 43rd Annual International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) conference in Dublin, Ireland. Four days, 1,200 delegates, nine thematic streams, 115 sessions, one traditional Irish band and just a few Guinesses later, and we’ve got the top eight take-aways. These cover the following topics:
1. Community participation and procedural fairness
2. Social inclusion
3. Social risk management
4.Indigenous and First Nations Peoples’ rights and participation
5. Getting contracting right
6. Getting comfortable with ‘decline’ scenarios
7. Critical minerals and responsible mining are critical
8. Land acquisition, displacement and resettlement.
In no particular order, our top eight take aways are:
- Community participation and procedural fairness: The sustainable transformation of industries and societies must be collective and inclusive. Genuine, effective and community-centric participation must be at the centre of all our efforts. Community engagement and participation based on procedural fairness–decision-making processes which participants agree are accessible, transparent and fair–need to be the norm. IAIA24 participants shared numerous, detailed case examples of situations where lack of community participation and procedural fairness is fuelling distrust and outrage against the very activities vital to energy transitions and climate transformations. The possibility and potential of excellent engagement also featured widely.
From hydro power to agriculture, IAIA24 offered innovative examples of community participation. In I2S’ session on ‘Principles for Social Inclusion for Impact Assessment’, for example, Melina Santomauro from the University of Buenos Aires shared her work in local agriculture feedlots which “brought together municipal environmental authorities, environmental specialists, the coordinator of the Feedlot Environmental Management Group (GAF) organization, students, farmers, and staff of feedlot companies.” This effort is now achieving positive environmental feedlot practice and also generated relationships and willingness to collaboratively address environmental challenges in feedlot production across Argentina. - Social inclusion: Ensuring that all groups and individuals in a society have equal opportunities for socio-economic participation and development appeared repeatedly across conference sessions, as both a values-principle and a major opportunity. Social inclusion is especially important for vulnerable communities, a situation made clear by Etisang Abraham’s presentation on communities in the Cree Nation, Canada and in Nigeria. Organisations and governments leading the renewables transition have an opportunity to support social sustainability by understanding, prioritising and integrating social inclusion into project investment decision-making, planning and contracting. I2S led the rapid drafting of ‘Principles for Social Inclusion for Impact Assessment’ with participants highlighting the importance of broad-based representation, sensitivity to local contexts, free, fair and inclusive consultation, and trust as characterising IA practices that can support and improve social inclusion. Watch this space, as the Draft Principles will soon be available for comment.
- Social risk management: The annual, pre-conference World Bank Day focused heavily on environmental and social risk management with case studies from across the Bank’s operations. New industry guidelines planned for electricity, transport and airports will focus on supply chains, land access and resettlement, and biodiversity. New redress mechanisms aim to capture complaints prior to their reaching formalisation. The IFC Social and Environmental Performance Standards are also slated for a refresh. Watch out for consultation and commentary periods. The Bank’s focus on social risk management in investments mirrored I2S’ work in the two days leading up to the conference, where we led training on Social Risk Management for Major Projects. Three critical issues for effective social risk management emerged throughout the conference: i) A need for regulatory and policy frameworks that systematise and require social risk management for major projects; ii) The importance of multi-stakeholder coordination and institutional strengthening around social risk management as a formalised practice; iii) The urgency to develop professional competencies in social risk management to raise the profile and effectiveness of risk identification and mitigation of social risks.
- Indigenous and First Nations Peoples’ rights and participation: Critical minerals mining and renewables generation sites are having substantial impacts on indigenous and First Nations lands. Presenters across the conference highlighted the tensions between the urgency of climate transitions and the necessity to develop relationships with indigenous peoples, to incorporate their knowledge into decision-making, and to synthesise that knowledge with scientific approaches. One example involved Sámi reindeer herders collaborating as experts to identify climate indicators. Traditional mining, like that in a Suriname case highlighted by conference presenter Dr Johanne Hanko, remains a major industry of concern. Preservation and protection of cultural heritage and the role of human rights impact assessment and community engagement processes appeared in a number of sessions, as did the continued push to require free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). In Panama, for example, FPIC requirements are currently under negotiation, as is work to co-create an Indigenous People’s Development Fund, integrated into national public policy. These efforts are playing an important role in formalising and raising visibility of indigenous peoples’ rights and participation.
- Getting contracting right: The earliest stages of project development must incorporate values, principles and practices that prioritise and systematise a fair and just transformation. Contracting, project design, and planning phases are all critical. I2S’ Dr Ruth O’Connor shared her work to develop the Infrastructure Engagement Excellence (IEE) Standards Contract Development and Management Scorecard as a means to support and promote best practice integration of community engagement into major projects’ contracts. Macquarie University’s Dr Madeline Taylor outlined the opportunities for Australia’s rural communities to co-design innovations in agrivoltaics and critical minerals, processes that will demand close inter-working from the earliest design and contracting stages. This phase of development is often left to legal experts, investors and project managers. Examples throughout the conference highlighted the opportunity and importance of better involvement and incorporation of community concerns and participation at this relatively early project phase, and well before construction.
- Getting comfortable with ‘decline’ scenarios: The renewables transition demands trade-offs. For many communities who have relied historically on fossil fuels industries, the energy transition will be an economic, social and cultural shock. It is important to both acknowledge this openly and also to work sensitively with the communities who may be asked to make substantial sacrifices and changes in order to facilitate the transformation that the planet needs but which may also cause them anguish. ‘Solastalgia’, the sense of loss or homesickness for a place as you knew it, was mentioned regularly throughout the conference, as was ‘anguish’, both for community identities lost or changing in the transition and for the environments that are being damaged, often beyond repair. Woodside Energy’s Social Performance Lead in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, Kate Brittain, presented work on ‘decline’ scenarios her team is undertaking with local communities. These courageous conversations involve the company candidly discussing the changes that could occur in local communities as fossil fuel industries which have long driven local wealth are phased out. Presenting ‘decline’ or worst case scenarios, alongside other scenarios, provides a meaningful way of working through options and developing strategies for change that offer empowerment over resignment.
- Critical minerals and responsible mining are critical: Perhaps it goes without saying that critical minerals will be critical to the energy transition. Critical minerals are metallic or non-metallic elements necessary to new technologies, including many renewables technologies, such as the spindle magnets on wind turbines (share that fun fact at Friday drinks!). But did you know that the level of critical minerals mining necessary to support a global energy transition will be 1.5 times greater than all previous mining? In other words, and perhaps ironically, we will need to mine more than in the past in order to support the transition. Importantly, what we are mining and its uses are different, but there are still major extraction processes required, many of which will occur in remote or vulnerable communities. Responsible mining is challenging but possible. Yet mining is also often seen as a relic of our fossil fueled past. It is important that we begin raising awareness of the amount of mining that will be required of the transition and ensure that work on sustainability, human rights, and worker safety in traditional mining sectors is not only carried over but vastly improved in the critical minerals industry.
- Land acquisition, displacement and resettlement: The Dublin Declaration on Fair and Equitable Land Access (FELA) deserves a post of its own and closes off our top eight takeaways from IAIA24. The FELA declaration and associated six principles speak to the heart of impacts faced by communities at the site of many major projects, including mining, special economic zones, agribusiness, solar and wind power, infrastructure and dams. A FELA approach sees “project developers, lenders, and implementing agencies recognise, respect, and empower the people affected by development projects, centralising their agency, their decision-making role, and their enhanced wellbeing.” Now there’s a declaration worth making.