Webinar: Exploring how EU legislation can ensure the rush for critical minerals and green hydrogen lead to a gender-just energy transition in South Africa and other resource-rich countries
Apr 24, 2023 | 9:00 AM - 10:15 AMPartner session - Virtual
Apr 24, 2023 | 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Partner session - Virtual
Description
Organised by: SOMO, ActionAid, BHRRC, MACUA/WAMUA
The session will explore the ways in which Europe’s rush to secure transition minerals is impacting women, girls, and communities in South Africa, and how well-designed European legislation such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Critical Raw Materials Regulation (CRMR) can ensure that those individuals and communities also benefit from a global gender-just energy transition.
Europe’s demand for new “green” technologies such as wind, solar, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen is soaring. Yet the extraction and processing of raw materials such as manganese, platinum, iron ore, and gold needed for these technologies can have severe adverse social and environmental impacts in countries like South Africa, a key global supplier of “transition minerals”. These adverse impacts are often felt most severely by women and girls in the mining areas, where they face sexual harassment, are excluded from employment, and suffer from the effects of water, land, and air pollution caused by mining. In the European Union, upcoming legislation such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) presents an opportunity to ensure that companies respect human rights and the environment in their value chains and that the European energy transition is a just one that does not create adverse impacts for women and girls in other parts of the world.
