The new demand supporting the green energy transition does not change the act of mining. Extracting minerals, such as lithium, cobalt or copper, is still a dirty business with significant environmental and human impact. This new boom threatens to open new extractive frontiers, in the global south but also in North America and Europe. There is an urgent need to deal with the potential widespread destruction and human rights abuses that could be unleashed. A new War on Want report, called “A Material Transition” , seeks to explore these dilemmas. It looks first to those communities affected by the resource extraction. The concept of a “just transition”, currently applied to energy use, must be extended to those who would otherwise inhabit “sacrifice zones”.
