PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states are often written out of value chains built on their critical minerals, according to a new report from the Fair Finance Asia (FFA) network and research partner, Profundo.
Among the first to examine the region’s critical minerals trade agreements alongside the finance behind them, FFA’s report, Extraction to Equity, asks whether deals involving Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand advance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards.
Drawing on public information up to December 2025, the report found that local-benefits clauses, sustainability standards, and equitable value sharing are consistently missing from agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs), leaving source countries shipping raw minerals while processing happens elsewhere. The report also questions how much of this demand may be driven by defense, not renewables, and whose needs are being prioritized.
The report calls on ASEAN member states and financial regulators to incentivize alternatives to extractivism and endorse the UN Principles to Guide Critical Energy Transition Minerals Towards Equity and Justice.
Bernadette Victorio, Program Lead, Fair Finance Asia: “FFA is among the first into this terrain of analysis for one reason: communities living with extractivism are the end beneficiaries of our advocacy, but they cannot demand terms that have not been mapped.”
Juliette Laplane, Senior Researcher, Profundo: “Critical minerals agreements must move beyond market access. They need enforceable safeguards including local value addition, fair pricing, and civil society participation.”
Sophoan Phean, National Director, Oxfam in Cambodia: “Cambodia is still at an early stage of critical mineral development and must center community rights, environmental protection, and revenue transparency and accountability before large-scale extraction expands.”
Victoria Fanggidae, Executive Director, The PRAKARSA: “Banks and investors must make human rights due diligence, community consent, transparent benefit-sharing, and credible decarbonization conditions of finance.”
Yuki Tanabe, Program Director, Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society: “Major Japanese banks and companies involved in the mining, refining, processing, and procurement of critical minerals in Southeast Asia must strengthen their ESG standards.”
Joel Chester Pagulayan, Climate Justice Portfolio Manager, Oxfam Pilipinas: “ASEAN and national regulators must replace voluntary commitments with mandatory safeguards that advance community rights, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and equitable development.”
Ponpakin Phruttiwongwanit, Project Coordinator, Fair Finance Thailand: “Unless ASEAN governments and financial regulators close policy gaps, people and ecosystems at the frontline of extraction will keep paying for a transition designed without them.”
Access the report: bit.ly/4hraS6Q
Media contacts:
Kyle Cruz
Influencing and Campaigning Manager
Fair Finance Asia
About Fair Finance Asia
FFA is a regional network of Asian civil society organizations working to ensure that financial institutions’ funding decisions respect the social and environmental well-being of the communities where they operate. Learn more: fairfinanceasia.org
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