Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you here today.
I'm a professor in global energy law and sustainability at the University of Dundee. We have one of the oldest energy law centres here, 44 years old this year. I'm also a Jean Monnet professor in the Just Transition, which is an award given by the European Commission.
I'm going to tell you about some research and policy work I've been doing. It's based on this issue of critical minerals and justice.
A crucial issue for the continued development of critical minerals centres on what the vision is for this industry. In today's world, that vision needs to have justice at its core. As the critical mineral industry keeps developing in Canada, justice needs to apply at the planning, construction, operation and decommissioning phases of a critical mineral project.
It's important that society is clear that (a) the critical minerals industry has learned from errors in the energy sector over the years in project development; (b) the value of the critical minerals industry to the energy transition; and (c) that the critical minerals industry will contribute to Canada's just transition to a low-carbon economy.
The critical minerals industry has clearly a vital role and it is necessary to ensure that the stakeholders are all clear that the industry needs what we can refer to as a “social licence to operate” off Canadian citizens.
In terms of exploring risks, as further development of the critical minerals industry is planned in Canada, it will be vital that the risk profile of the industry is reduced. This has clear benefits in lowering costs of finance, ensuring continued operations on site without stoppages, contributing to economic growth, providing good jobs and contributing to the energy transition. In order to achieve all this, the role of justice has to be clear so that all stakeholders will be satisfied.
The international political, business and societal agenda is changing with increased calls for more fairness, equality, equity and inclusiveness—in essence, justice. Hence it's important that Canada remain ahead of such change and have policy that is flexible to adapt to this change.
We can see these calls for more justice if we follow developments due to the 2015 Paris Agreement; climate change action; the UN sustainable development goals; and taxation, disclosure and transparency issues such as ESG investing, rules of foreign investment, economics, environmental impact assessments, insurance, project finance and the rise in imagery and data.
President Joe Biden has gone even further and appointed an energy justice director within the Department of Energy in the U.S.
All these areas I mentioned are calling for more justice, and they try to develop and improve just outcomes within society. For the critical minerals industry, ensuring that justice is at the heart of its development will only be positive. It will ensure that their business will actually develop and with less risk, and it will be sustainable into the future. That is, it will not have to stop operations due to a lack of available insurance, and so on.
Therefore, what are we talking about here when we talk about these forms of justice? We can look at this from, let's say, a just framework. What this involves is examining the problem from four levels.
The first level is ensuring distributive, procedural and restorative justice. I will be brief in explaining them.
Procedural justice should be clear. Restorative justice concerns the need to ensure projects are decommissioned; that is, cleaned up properly. Distributive justice is key, as there should be fairer distribution of wealth created from the critical minerals industry. There is no reason for mining companies to keep earning super-normal profits.
The second level of analysis looks at recognition and cosmopolitan justice. These, in essence, concern inclusiveness. Recognition refers to ensuring, for example, indigenous communities are recognized. Cosmopolitan justice ensures we are engaged with impacts across borders; that is, what will be the contribution of critical minerals to the global energy transition? How will it impact Canada's energy and climate targets under the Paris Agreement and other international commitments?
The third level of analysis concerns space. Where will these critical mineral developments be in Canada? Are they in clusters where, as a result, there might be excessive environmental impacts? Will they contribute positively to regional development across Canada?
The fourth level focuses on timelines and planning for different scenarios in 2030, 2035, 2040, 2050, etc. Here, this question can be asked: When does Canada want an operational critical minerals industry that is just and sustainable? If it's 2030, for example, what types of law and policy—