Mining

Financial institutions must only provide finance to companies that uphold international human rights law and best practice standards, including:
Indigenous Peoples’ rights and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC): Applythe principles of the UNDRIP, including the rights to: give or withhold FPIC; decline participation in an FPIC process; exercise self-determination and sovereignty over territories, including the right of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation to remain uncontacted.
Inclusive participation: Respect and uphold the rights of affected countries and communities to participate meaningfully in decisions about mining on or near their territories. This requires inclusive, accessible, and culturally appropriate decision-making processes; recognising FPIC as an ongoing process; and where mining operations breach international human rights law or fail to meet agreed protections, supporting the right of affected communities and governments to seek renegotiation, suspension, or termination of mineral agreements and licenses, in line with the UNGPs and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
Labour rights: Adhere to the ILO core standards, including freedom of association, elimination of forced and child labour, non-discrimination, and safe, fair working conditions, with particular attention to protections for contracted, informal, and migrant workers.
Protection of defenders: Adopt a Zero Tolerance Policy for all forms of violence, intimidation, and reprisals against human rights defenders (HRDs), affected communities, and/or workers.
Access to remedy: Maintain effective, accessible, and independent grievance and remediation mechanisms that are aligned with the UNGPs and provide transparent pathways for communities to remedy.

Financial institutions must only provide finance to companies that comply with environmental law and global best practice, including:
No deforestation and ecosystem destruction: Ensure operations do not contribute to deforestation, forest degradation, conversion of natural ecosystems, or the destruction of critical biodiversity areas, protected areas, wetlands, peatlands, or intact forests.
Robust waste management systems: Ban ocean and riverine tailings disposal; require tailings facilities to meet the highest international safety standards in design, construction and maintenance, with a zero-failure objective, independent monitoring and clear accident mitigation and emergency response plans
Protect water sources and aquatic ecosystems: Prevent contamination from mining effluent, acid leaching and other extractive processes. In the event of contamination, make it mandatory to completely restore the affected area and guarantee full reparation to all those affected.
Plan for closure and restoration: Implement comprehensive mine closure and reclamation plans that include restoring ecosystems and repairing environmental damage caused by their operations. 

Financial institutions should strengthen their own systems to prevent financing harmful mining activities, including:
Group-level due diligence: Before issuing or renewing any financial services conduct comprehensive due diligence at the corporate group level, as defined by the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFI).
Mineral supply chain traceability: For high-risk supply chains, financial institutions should require disclosure of sourcing data, adopt anti-corruption safeguards, and use independent third-party verification.
Public disclosure of grievances: Disclose all complaints, allegations, and grievances associated with mining clients, along with updates on investigations, remediation, and outcomes.
Independent monitoring: To verify that financed clients comply with human rights, environmental, and anti-corruption standards. 
Non-compliance protocols: Publish clear protocols for mining clients with time-bound engagement plans, escalation processes and divestment or termination thresholds.

Financial institutions should align all mining-related finance with global goals and the best available science, including:
Portfolio emissions reduction: Reduce financed CO₂ by 48% and all GHG by 43% by 2030 (from 2019 baseline), reaching net zero by 2050. Apply the sectoral reduction pathways of a Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario with low or no overshot and limited reliance on negative emissions (e.g. IEA NZE scenario).
Client requirements: Only finance companies with credible, time-bound climate transition plans to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions aligned with the 1.5°C global warming pathway and the best available science.
No fossil fuel lock-in: Exclude finance for fossil fuel-linked mineral supply chains, including captive coal plants. No exceptions should be made for facilities claiming Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) capacity or alleged hydrogen-readiness.
Transparency: Report transparently in line with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Standard, or equivalent levels of disclosure. This includes project-level payments to governments (taxes, royalties, and fees), contracts, commodity trading, and beneficial ownership information.
Fair taxation: Ensure clients comply with the letter and spirit of tax laws and regulations in the countries where they operate, publish group structures and country-by-country tax data, and refrain from using tax avoidance schemes.
Public commitment: Align with the UN Principles to guide critical energy transition minerals towards equity and justice.

Financial institutions must adopt clear exclusion criteria, consistently applied across all services, including:
Exclusions: Companies linked to deforestation, Indigenous rights violations, severe community harm, contamination, tailings mismanagement, violence against defenders, new fossil fuel infrastructure, or repeated / unresolved ESG violations must be excluded.
No-go areas: Align with the Banks and Biodiversity No-Go Areas framework, excluding operations in high-risk ecosystems.
Enforcement: Embed regular review, verification, and enforcement of exclusion policies into all due diligence processes and place non-compliant clients on public watchlists, set time-bound milestones, and terminate finance or divest if violations remain unresolved to ensure accountability.