The Importance of Understanding Indigenous Rights Risk Exposure

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Mining company Rio Tinto destroyed an Indigenous cultural heritage site at Jugon Gorge in Western Australia as part of a mining project. Kate went on to say that there have been multiple instances where companies have moved ahead with a project without taking the views of Indigenous communities into consideration. She said free prior and informed consent is a bedrock principle of achieving social license to operate for companies.

In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we explore how Indigenous communities are engaging with companies, financial institutions and investors to ensure a just transition to a low-carbon economy. We speak to Kate Finn, Executive Director of First Peoples Worldwide, an Indigenous-led organization that aims to increase corporate accountability to Indigenous peoples at the intersection of business, law and finance.

Kate says companies are starting to realize that their operational areas often overlap with the lands, territories and resources of Indigenous peoples.

"In the last three or four years, there is incredible interest from the private sector in understanding not only their Indigenous rights risk exposure, but how to operationalize Indigenous rights in their companies and in their processes," she tells us.

And we speak to Kevin Thomas, CEO of the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, or SHARE, a shareholder advocacy organization for institutional investors in Canada. The group is part of the secretariat behind an institutional investor engagement initiative called Climate Engagement Canada, which drives dialogue between finance and industry to promote a just transition to a net-zero economy. The CEC is undertaking a climate benchmarking exercise aimed at enabling members to engage with Canadian companies on their net-zero transition plans. The benchmarking exercise includes a metric on how companies are considering Indigenous rights in their low-carbon transition plans.

Kevin says companies in Canada tend to approach Indigenous rights as separate from climate change. He hopes the CEC and its benchmarking exercise will "bring those two worlds together."

"If there's an issue, if there's an impact, we should be getting to the table together to figure out how to mitigate it," he says.

Listen to our episode about the UN's biodiversity conference known as COP15 here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/podcasts/on-the-ground-at-cop15-how-business-is-getting-to-grips-with-biodiversity

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