Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples

Abstract

Rapidly transitioning the global energy system to renewables is considered necessary to combat climate change. Current estimates suggest that at least 30 energy transition minerals and metals (ETMs) form the material base for the energy transition. The inventory of ETMs indicates a high level of intersectionality with territories less impacted by the historic forces of industrialization. To identify the current global footprint, 5,097 ETM projects were geo-located against indicators for indigeneity, human modification of land, food production, water risk, conflict, as well as capacity measures for project permitting, consultation and consent. Study results differentiate ETMs to improve visibility over linkages between technology, resources and sustainability objectives. Our analysis reveals that more than half of the ETM resource base is located on or near the lands of Indigenous and peasant peoples, two groups whose rights to consultation and free prior informed consent are embedded in United Nations declarations.

Threat of mining to African great apes

“…The large overlap between mining areas and areas important to apes is partly because many of the minerals needed for the energy transition are in places that have not yet been industrialized, which typically include rural or remote parts of the world. This means that current climate solutions could lead to more industrialization in these places, which could worsen the climate crisis ( 59 ). The production of biofuels from food and feed crops exemplifies this paradox, where increases in bioenergy cropland to meet global demands in biofuel are expected to cause severe impacts on biodiversity that are not compensated by lower climate change impacts ( 60 ).…”

The potential for sustainable hydropower

“…However, renewable energy is not by definition sustainable. Installations and infrastructure for solar, wind and hydropower require large quantities of minerals 3 , and solar farms and hydropower basins may compete for space with agricultural use.…”

Mobilizing materials to enable a fast energy transition: a conceptual framework

“…Increasing the output of existing mines and processing facilities could be relatively quick, but it is limited by the capacity of existing infrastructure. Expanding extraction and processing infrastructure and thus further increasing primary production requires more time (Michaux, 2021a), energy, and causes additional environmental-e. g., on biodiversity (IRP, 2019), or water resources (Schomberg et al, 2021)as well as social impacts on local communities (Owen et al, 2022). Because of the different material composition of RE infrastructure in comparison to the current socio-economic metabolism, increasing primary production is inevitable for some materials (Petavratzi and Gunn, 2022).…”

“…New technologies Accessing, extracting and processing source stocks may require, or be eased by, new or improved technologies. For example, the majority of known mineral resources related to transition metals is located below the land of indigenous and pastoral peoples (Owen et al, 2022). Extracting them in the traditional way will cause environmental and social impacts, even if they have a societal licence to operate.…”