Renewable giants make human rights progress
The renewables sector is making significant progress on embedding human rights into its operations, with 67% improving or maintaining their scores in the 2025 Renewable Energy & Human Rights Benchmark since 2023.
Published by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the benchmark assesses 35 of the world’s largest renewable energy companies on their human rights policies and practices. Although there remains room for improvement, there were findings indicating important progress. As well as the 67% improving or maintaining their scores since 2023, 18 out of 27 companies have improved their scores on commitment to providing remedy and/or grievance mechanisms.
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Euopean utilities firms are leading with Ørsted, Iberdrola, Enel Green Power and Vestas the frontrunners in human rights policies and practices. The top six developers in this year’s benchmark are all European-based, the Centre said.
Caroline Avan, head of natural resources and just energy transition, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, said: “The renewable energy industry is at a crossroads: not only is it building the infrastructures of our future global energy system, but it also has the potential to contribute to a fairer global economic order and shared prosperity for all in the energy transition.
“Positively, part of the industry has shown it is taking serious steps towards this. Results from the 2025 Renewable Energy & Human Rights Benchmark show that these companies are coming around to the fact that a fast energy transition can only be one that is also fair and rights-respecting. They also appear to understand that if they promote shared prosperity for local communities in which their operations are based, this is not only the right thing to do, but it also offers them a competitive advantage. These are all positive signs that the sector is moving in the right direction.”
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However, progress needs to be accelerated in some areas: despite the high potential for conflict when Indigenous Peoples’ rights are not respected – and a concerning number of allegations of abuse linked to Indigenous Peoples’ rights – only two out of 22 companies have sufficient policies in place to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
In addition, the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), a cornerstone of Indigenous rights under international law, is almost entirely ignored: only one company has adopted a clear FPIC policy, the benchmark found.
“Respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples is a legal and moral imperative that builds lasting trust, reduces the likelihood of conflict, and supports the long-term sustainability of the business,” said Alancay Morales Garro, senior project manager & Indigenous Peoples’ rights specialist.
“Furthermore, it reduces the very real risk of financial, legal and reputational damage – which has demonstrated to undermine the sector’s capacity to roll-out renewable energy capacity at the pace required to begin to address the climate crisis. Our analysis shows that addressing this challenge is the right thing to do, and is also essential to investor confidence and project success.
“With governments calling for a tripling of renewable energy capacity by 2030, companies must act decisively on respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Closing this gap on Indigenous Peoples’ rights is absolutely crucial for a just and sustainable energy transition.”
Risks in solar supply chains also persist with no company out of the 35 assessed publicly disclosing its full supply chain, something which is a critical element in responding to the risk of exposure to the severe issue of forced labour in Xinjiang Autonomous Uyghur Region (XUAR), as referred to by UN experts, the Centre highlighted.
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