| Summary: | The Paris Agreement and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals clearly demonstrate the need for
global energy transitions. Evolving energy generation and the expansion of the renewable energy capacity and
associated infrastructure contribute to changing and increasing demands for minerals and metals. The potential
negative environmental, social and economic impacts of increased mineral resource production have been
contested and are under increasing scrutiny by both academia and civil society. Responsible Sourcing (RS) has
become a management approach for companies and policymakers to identify, monitor and address potential
negative impacts along their raw materials’ supply chains. Although RS might contribute to sustainability along
the supply chain, this paper raises the question of whether it also contributes to Natural Resource Justice (NRJ)
in energy transitions. Based on a bibliometric network analysis, this study investigated current narratives of RS
literature and to what degree core aspects of NRJ (e.g., distribution of benefits and burdens, power asymmetries,
property rights) are reflected in the RS debate following a deductive approach. The results obtained show that
compared with other sectors (e.g., timber, food, biomass, textiles) debates on RS in renewable energy-related
sectors are still scarce and fragmented. The analysis indicates that different foci are aligned with one or more
of the traditional three sustainability dimensions (i.e., environmental, social, economic), while few addressed
aspects of NRJ. The authors observed a distinct lack of holistic justice considerations in the current RS debate and
only a few individual issues are discussed, such as the detection of burden shifting, accountability for supplier
behavior, and sharing of financial benefits. This research contributes to the understanding of different RS approaches
and extends the RS discussion to NRJ considerations in energy transitions. It also points out important
paths for future research to contribute to just energy transitions.
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