A newly published report from the Fair Finance Asia network and research partner Profundo reveals that member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are frequently excluded from the value chains built upon their own critical minerals. Titled Extraction to Equity, the report represents one of the initial efforts to examine the region’s critical mineral trade agreements alongside the financial backing that supports them.
New Report Warns ASEAN Mineral Deals Lack Safeguards
The analysis centers on deals involving Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, questioning whether these agreements advance environmental, social, and governance standards. According to public information available through December 2025, trade agreements and memoranda of understanding consistently omit local-benefits clauses, sustainability standards, and equitable value-sharing mechanisms. As a result, source nations export raw minerals while industrial processing takes place outside their borders. The report also raises questions regarding whether market demand is driven by the defense sector rather than renewable energy, and whose priorities are being served.
Calls for Policy Changes and Mandatory Safeguards
In response to these findings, the report urges ASEAN member states and financial regulators to promote alternatives to extractivism and endorse the United Nations Principles to Guide Critical Energy Transition Minerals Towards Equity and Justice.
Experts from partner organizations emphasized the need for structural reforms. Bernadette Victorio, program lead for Fair Finance Asia, stated: 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, a senior researcher at Profundo, noted that agreements must extend beyond market access to incorporate enforceable safeguards, local value addition, fair pricing, and participation from civil society. Highlighting the situation in Cambodia, Sophoan Phean, national director of Oxfam in Cambodia, pointed out that the country remains in the early stages of critical mineral development and must prioritize community rights, environmental protection, and revenue accountability before large-scale extraction grows.
Financial Sector and Regulatory Accountability
Financial institutions and investors face direct scrutiny over their lending and operational practices in the region. Victoria Fanggidae, executive director of The PRAKARSA, asserted that banks and investors must condition financing on human rights due diligence, community consent, transparent benefit-sharing, and credible decarbonization measures.
Yuki Tanabe, program director at the Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society, added that major Japanese banks and corporations engaged in mining, refining, processing, and procurement across Southeast Asia must elevate their ESG standards. Meanwhile, Joel Chester Pagulayan, climate justice portfolio manager for Oxfam Pilipinas, urged regulators to replace voluntary pledges with mandatory safeguards protecting community rights, free, prior, and informed consent, and equitable development.
Ponpakin Phruttiwongwanit, project coordinator for Fair Finance Thailand, warned that frontline communities and local ecosystems will continue bearing the costs of an exclusive energy transition unless regional governments and financial regulators act to close existing policy gaps.