MINING - In the Name of the Climate

In the Name of the Climate: Critical Mapping was conducted by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLF) and the Graduate Program in Social Science on Development, Agriculture, and Society (CPDA) of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ).
The first part of the investigation aimed to map and critically analyze the energy transition processes presented by businesses and governments to solve the global climate crisis.
The second part of the study mapped 107 private projects that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked with deforestation and forest degradation in Brazil. The study introduces the main contradictions and issues of the continuously expanding market (whether voluntary or regulated).
MINING - LITHIUM - ELECTRIC VEHICLES
In the name of the climate, businesses and governments have been justifying the increase in mining operations around the world, using the energy transition argument. In lithium mining, for example, the estimated annual mining rate is more than 8,000 percent. Lithium is one of the components of electric vehicle batteries. Brazil has been joining this race for the so-called “mineral of the future,” especially in the state of Minas Gerais, in Jequitinhonha Valley. In 2022, the country lifted lithium mining restrictions, which, up to that point, were state-exclusive. This process has been called green extractivism-and there is nothing green about it, as mining is part of a system based on the destruction of the environment and the forced displacement of traditional communities. In building a clean energy future, the global South remains based on a system grounded in racism and inequality. If a transition is not made in the name of the peoples, it is not a just, social, ecological energy transition.