of key energy mineral refining controlled by three countries
IEA, 2025Just Transitions
Research · Supply Chain Justice · Critical Minerals
A clean transition must also be a fair one.
Critical minerals make the energy transition possible. They can also reproduce extractive inequalities unless governance frameworks protect rights, repair harms, and share value.
Mine materials
Refinerisk
Tradevalue
Usejustice
global cobalt demand in 2024, with batteries driving 76%
Cobalt Institute, 2024projected increase in UK lithium demand by 2035
UK Vision 2035The Challenge
ESG compliance is not enough.
The transition depends on minerals extracted and processed through complex global supply chains. A just transition asks who benefits, who bears risk, who has voice, and who is protected when demand accelerates.
"The world needs more battery and grid materials — but faster supply can intensify pressure on workers, Indigenous peoples, water systems, and communities near mines."
Carr-Wilson, Pattanayak & Weinthal, 2024ESG factors identified
A systematic review found 26 ESG factors across critical minerals; 18 were risks.
High-risk research concentrations
Lithium in South America's Lithium Triangle and cobalt in the DRC receive the heaviest attention.
The Framework
Four practical tests for justice
A visual working framework for asking whether clean-energy supply chains are becoming fairer, not simply faster.
Distributive
Who benefits, and who bears risk?
Procedural
Who has a real voice before decisions are made?
Recognition
Whose rights, knowledge, and vulnerabilities count?
Restorative
Who repairs past and present harms?
Mineral Focus
Where the stakes are highest
Three minerals show the tension between climate urgency, supply concentration, community consent, and extractive risk.
Cobalt
Battery chemistries · superalloys · defence uses
- Demand
- 222 kt in 2024
- Concentration
- DRC ~75% mined · China ~79% refined
Equity risk: artisanal mining, child labour, and traceability gaps.
Lithium
EV batteries · grid-scale energy storage
- Production
- 290,000 metric tons, 2025 est.
- UK outlook
- +1,100% demand by 2035
Equity risk: water systems, Indigenous rights, and fragile ecosystems.
Nickel
Stainless steel · high-nickel battery chemistries
- Growth
- Indonesia ~90% of refining growth, 2020–2024
- Status
- EU strategic raw material
Equity risk: contamination, deforestation, FPIC, and community harms.
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Governance
Responsible sourcing as a system, not a slogan
The OECD framework asks companies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for risks across the chain — without abandoning high-risk communities.
Map
Go beyond direct suppliers to extraction, refining, trading, transport, and end use.
Prioritise
Focus on salient harms: labour abuse, displacement, corruption, pollution, and unsafe work.
Verify
Use traceability, independent assurance, and on-the-ground evidence.
Stay accountable
Avoid de-risking that simply shifts harm to communities with less power.
Policy Landscape
UK & EU regulatory context
The policy question is how to reconcile speed, security, industrial strategy, community consent, labour standards, and fair benefit-sharing.
CSDDD
Mandatory due diligence across chains of activities for in-scope companies.
CRMA
Supply-security targets for extraction, processing, recycling, and dependency reduction.
Critical Minerals Strategy
Domestic resilience, recycling, lithium production, and partnership agenda.
Senior Leadership Workshop · Invitation Only
Governing Just Transitions in Energy Supply Chains
A one-day participatory workshop convening twenty senior leaders to diagnose governance failures, stress-test existing mechanisms, and co-design a Just Transitions Governance Protocol — a practical, operational framework built by the people who will use it.
Request an invitation →
Date · 22 September 2026
Location · Warwick Business School, Level 17, The Shard, 32 London Bridge St., London, SE1 9SG
Participants · ~20, by invitation
Fee · No charge
Programme
A structured day of deliberation and co-design
Three sessions, each building on the last. Participants work in mixed tables of five, drawing on different sectors and perspectives. Table composition shifts between sessions to maximise cross-sector exchange.
Diagnosis
Mixed tables map where governance fails in energy transition supply chains — who is harmed, who has no voice, and why existing mechanisms have not resolved it. Each table completes a structured template and presents one key failure in plenary.
Stress-testing
Each table stress-tests one governance mechanism — CSDDD, OECD due diligence guidelines, certification schemes, or investor stewardship codes — against the failures identified in Session 1. Where does it fall short on equity specifically? What does it miss? Who does it protect that it should challenge?
Protocol design
Tables draft one component of the Just Transitions Governance Protocol in operational language — distributive justice, procedural justice, recognition justice, or restorative justice. The full group negotiates and agrees the final text together.
What participants produce
The Just Transitions Governance Protocol
A co-authored, sector-tested governance framework covering accountability, voice, verification, and benefit-sharing — produced by the people who will use it, not designed for them.
Governance Protocol
A practical, operational protocol structured around four justice dimensions: distributive, procedural, recognition, and restorative. Co-designed across sectors and immediately applicable.
Policy Brief
A concise brief distilling workshop findings for FCDO, DESNZ, and European policymakers. Participants are acknowledged as contributors.
WBS Working Paper
An academic working paper and journal submission drawing on workshop deliberations, contributing to the Warwick research programme on just transitions governance.
Who attends
A deliberately cross-sector room
The workshop works because people who rarely sit together are asked to design something together. Five segments, roughly four participants each.
Corporates
Sustainability and responsible sourcing directors in critical minerals, energy, and manufacturing.
Finance
ESG investors, development finance institutions, and impact investors with explicit social mandates.
Civil Society
NGOs and advocacy organisations working on supply chain accountability, labour rights, and Indigenous consent.
Policy
Government and think tank leads on just transitions, supply chain due diligence, and critical minerals governance.
Research
Academics and analysts whose work bridges governance, sustainability, and equity in complex systems.
This workshop operates under the Chatham House Rule — discussions are not attributed to individuals or organisations. The session forms part of a Warwick Business School participatory research programme conducted under full ethical approval from the University of Warwick.
First in a series
The September 2026 workshop is the first in a planned series of cross-sector governance co-design events. Details of subsequent events will be communicated to participants and announced on this site.
Contact: Dr Umar Boodoo · umar.boodoo@wbs.ac.uk
Dr Fred Dahlmann · frederik.dahlmann@wbs.ac.uk
"Measure transition success not only in tonnes supplied — but in rights protected, harms reduced, and value shared."
Just Transitions Research Project · Warwick Business School · University of Warwick
References & data sources
- IRENA, Fostering a just energy transition: A framework for policy design, 2026. irena.org →
- Carr-Wilson, Pattanayak & Weinthal, Critical mineral mining in the energy transition, 2024. ScienceDirect →
- IEA, Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025. iea.org →
- Cobalt Institute, Cobalt Market Report 2024. cobaltinstitute.org →
- UK Government, Vision 2035: Critical Minerals Strategy. gov.uk →
- OECD, Responsible Mineral Supply Chains. oecd.org →
- USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Lithium. usgs.gov →
- FIDH, South America's lithium triangle. fidh.org →
- European Commission, European Critical Raw Materials Act. ec.europa.eu →
- Mighty Earth et al., The Human & Environmental Toll of Nickel Mining in Indonesia, 2026. mightyearth.org →