Credit: Pexels/Tom Fisk 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.
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