In August 2026, the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC) launched its new report, ““It would change my life”: remedy, reparations and justice in Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy industry”.

The report finds migrant workers in Saudi Arabia’s energy transition suffer a double indignity: severe abuse and, eight months after those abuses were exposed, an alarming failure by major multinational businesses to provide remedy.

In 2025, BHRC documented a litany of labour rights violations impacting Nepali and Bangladeshi workers on solar and green hydrogen projects in Saudi Arabia.

In 2026, 26 of the workers were re-interviewed. They said that at no point in the last eight months had they been contacted about the alleged abuse, that companies had failed to provide any form of remedy, and conditions on the projects remain the same: “[there has been] no change. Everything is like before”.

The report names 32 companies with business connections to the projects:

• Two construction and engineering contractors, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and PowerChina, who employed migrant workers – either directly or through subcontractors – in abusive working conditions. Almost half of interviewees were directly employed by L&T.
• Five project developers directly linked to the abuse through their supply chains: ACWA Power, the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Aramco, NEOM and Air Products.
• Twenty-five banks financing the projects: Standard Chartered, Riyad Bank and Mizuho Financial Group (financed all five projects); Banque Saudi Fransi, Saudi National Bank, HSBC and Saudi Awwal Bank (financed four projects); Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Arab Petroleum Investments, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Korea Development Bank (financed two projects); and Abu Dhabi Commerical Bank, Al Rajhi Bank, Alimna Bank, Bank Al Bilad, Bank Aljazira, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, DZ Bank, Emirates NBD, JPMorgan Chase, KfW, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Natixis, and The Norinchukin Bank (financed one project).

The report outlines the shared responsibility of these firms to ensure remedy is provided urgently, in line with international standards and the demands, needs and expectations of affected workers.

Ahead of the report’s launch, these companies were invited to respond to the report’s findings and to disclose any steps it will take to investigate the abuses and ensure timely remedy.

By the time of the report's publication, responses were received from 14 companies: BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, DZ Bank, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, KfW, Larsen and Toubro, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group, Natixis, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, and The Norinchukin Bank. Their responses can be read in full below.