Lead researcher: Prof. Tobias Ide – XCEPT Research Fellow
Duration: 2025-2026
Countries: Ghana, Chile
Renewable energy technologies are crucial in mitigating climate change. These technologies, such as solar cells, wind turbines, and batteries, rely on vast quantities of transition minerals, including lithium, cobalt, and rare earths. With global demand for transition minerals surging, the extraction of such minerals is increasing. Due to their adverse socio-economic impacts, many local communities resist transition mineral mining. This can result in project delays and cancellations as well as violent backlash by companies and states. Understanding such conflicts is hence crucial in peaceful and effective climate change mitigation. Using a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 41 cases in 25 countries, this study examines why transition mineral conflicts escalate in illegal and violent ways.
Through this project, the Fellow will continue examining under which conditions conflicts related to the mining of critical minerals become disruptive. As part of this project, started in 2025, the Fellow has already completed substantial secondary data analysis, which brought him to select Ghana and Chile as case studies for further primary fieldwork. Fieldwork in Ghana has been completed in November 2025. Under this contract, the Fellow will conduct primary data collection in Chile, continue data analysis and develop final outputs.
For more information regarding this research, contact [email protected]