"How are Indigenous groups participating in large renewable energy project co-ownership? Mapping global progress" February 2026

This paper offers a first-of-its-kind foundational, evidence-based knowledge of the state of play on Indigenous co-ownership of large renewable energy projects...

We present an original dataset, comprising 61 projects carefully curated to establish a much-needed global baseline on the spatial and temporal trends and patterns across technology, project size, development stage and equity share...

The energy transition… poses threats to Indigenous peoples’ lands at a scale not witnessed previously...

Business-as-usual approaches may continue, compromising social, cultural and environmental safeguards and exacerbating historical patterns of dispossession, displacement and exclusion...

Indigenous co-ownership of renewable energy projects is increasingly proposed as a tangible pathway towards economic reconciliation, enabling Indigenous communities to assert sovereignty over their lands and land use decision-making...

Holding equity in renewable energy developments may offer Indigenous nations a prospective opportunity to assert their right to self-determination, gain revenue streams, enhance employment, and build technical and governance capacities...

Despite obtaining an equity stake in a project, Indigenous peoples may remain excluded from governance and stewardship… through a ‘silent partner’ arrangement...

Whether these co-ownership arrangements yield primarily symbolic returns for proponents or contribute to more substantive, trust-building relationships warrants deeper examination....

Questions are both necessary and timely, given the projected, unprecedented scale of low-carbon energy development on Indigenous lands, and the enduring legacy of Indigenous marginalisation in project-related decision-making....