Mining, risk and climate resilience in the ‘other’ Pacific: Latin American lessons for the South Pacific

Abstract

We suggest the value of considering Pacific Latin America and the South Pacific in relationship to each other in contexts of climate change and investment in extractive industry. The paper explores the interactions between extractive industry, climate change and environmental governance through the lenses of double exposure, double movements, resilience and risk. The first part of the paper addresses the nature and scope of investments in extractive industries in this 'other Pacific' . The geography of these investments is changing the actual and perceived distribution of exposure and risk in the region. The nature of this risk is also being affected by climate change and its implications for the geographies of water and land-use. Much of the contention surrounding extractive industries can be understood as conflicts over the unequal distribution of this risk, how to interpret its significance and the ways in which resilience might be enhanced to respond to it. The final section of the paper discusses the ways in which mining governance and governance for resilience converge and, on the basis of recent experiences in El Salvador, analyses the difficulties in governing extractive industry in a way that manages risk and builds resilience.

Incremental, transitional and transformational adaptation to climate change in resource extraction regions

“…Therefore, apart from improving understanding of individual adaptation pathways, there is a necessity for conceptual lenses that are polycentric, dynamic and multi-scalar. Assessments of vulnerability, adaptive capacity and adaptation of the mining industry (Ford et al, 2010(Ford et al, , 2011Hodgkinson et al, 2014;Loechel et al, 2013;Pearce et al, 2011;Pizarro et al, 2017) Climate change in the sustainable mining agenda, climate-compatible development and corporate social responsibility (Bambrick, 2018;Dyer et al, 2013;Hodgkinson & Smith, 2018;Irarrázabal, 2006;Jegede, 2016;Leventon et al, 2015) Climate change responses are driven by neoliberal and colonial ideas and neglect the heterogeneity of knowledge and institutions (Cameron, 2012;Curley, 2018;Hirons et al, 2014;Nuttall, 2012) In situ adaptation planning and adaptive regulations (Aleke & Nhamo, 2016;Carkovic et al, 2016;Sharma & Franks, 2013) Alternative institutional design, promoting cross-scale and polycentric institutions, and integration of Indigenous and local knowledge systems in decision-making (Ali et al, 2017;Birch, 2016;Eisenstadt & West, 2016;Petheram et al, 2010) Governance and political challenges (Bebbington et al, 2015) Economic and political rationale for adaptation (Damigos, 2012;Kolk & Levy, 2001;Martus, 2019;Prowse et al, 2009) Legitimacy of mining projects (particularly coal and oil) within the existing climate change governance regimes and just transitions (Bos & Gupta, 2016;Evans, 2007;Odell et al, 2018;Patterson et al, 2018;…”

“…It is challenging to implement climate change initiatives in regions where mining is dominant politically. In a discussion of governance challenges in the face of climate risks in El Salvador (a country that has recently rejected large-scale mining), Bebbington and his collaborators (2015) exposed conflicts over government mandates, particularly between economic and environmental ministries, difficulties in managing conflicts over mining leases and social development and higher-order processes governing transnationals and their actions across scales. In their view, all of these need to be resolved in El Salvador before the commencement of large-scale mining if resilience in the face of climate change risks is a concern.…”

FIJI Water, water everywhere: Global brands and democratic and social injustice

“…In some ways, it has replaced the functions of the Fijian government. But as Banks (: 44) suggests, the triple relationship between the government, the private company and local communities' is ‘massively complicated’ (see also Bebbington et al , ). As such, it involves a rescaling of democracy and an erosion of social justice…”

Conflicts over Extractivist Policy and the Forest Frontier in Central America

“…Third, the election of an FMLN government in 2009 marked a shift in the balance of power and the insertion of new political elites into the national settlement such that political space opened for policy innovations that under prior ARENA governments would not have been possible. Fourth, this political change allowed for new relationships between government bureaucrats and parliamentary commissions that, though characterized by tension (Bebbington, Bury, Cuba, & Rogan, 2015;Spalding, this issue), led the government to produce national policy appraisals that provided technical support to the 2017 law. Fifth, these interactions together with research commissioned by movement organizations themselves helped produce a scientific narrative regarding the risks that the combined effects of mining and climate change would imply for water security .…”