Exploring supply and demand solutions for renewable energy minerals War on Want fights against the root causes of poverty and human rights violation, as part of the worldwide movement for global justice. We do this by: • working in partnership with grassroots social movements, trade unions and workers’ organisations to empower people to fight for their rights • running hard-hitting popular campaigns against the root causes of poverty and human rights violation • mobilising support and building alliances for political action in support of human rights, especially workers’ rights • raising public awareness of the root causes of poverty, inequality and injustice, and empowering people to take action for change. Join us! The success of our work relies on inspiring people to join the fight against poverty and human rights abuse. Get involved with our work: Visit waronwant.org/donate Email [email protected] Call 0207 324 5040 Write to War on Want 44-48 Shepherdess Walk London N1 7JP facebook.org/waronwant @waronwant @waronwant Research supported by London Mining Network This publication was produced with the financial and Yes to Life No to Mining. support of MCS Charitable Foundation. 01 Preface A new ‘green’ industrial revolution is being and mineral extraction. The report argued lauded by many of the world’s governments that switching from an economy powered as the way to kick-start the global by fossil fuels to one powered by economy, following the economic turmoil renewable energy, while increasing energy generated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The consumption in the Global North, was drive towards a global energy system simply not an option. powered completely by renewable sources is being accelerated, as is the so-called Each new green technology has a potential ‘fourth industrial revolution’ which will for extractivist violence and worker merge the digital world with biological and exploitation. From Chile to China, physical innovation. technological supply chains across the globe are undergoing a reconfiguration But this embrace of a renewable energy that connects mines, smelters, seaports, transition adopts a resource-intensive power stations, huge logistics hubs and approach, focusing – often exclusively – renewable energy manufacturers. In this on replacing fossil fuel powered cars with process frontline communities, factory electric vehicles it attempts to keep the workers and floor shop assistants are also structure and scale of our current fossil being connected in chains of solidarity. fuel economy, only powered by renewables. This approach doesn’t In ‘A Material Transition’, we analyse the question the intense energy-use of the complexity of these supply chains and wealthiest societies or address unequal propose a path to supply chain justice energy distribution: whereby 3.5 billion which marries structural, regulatory people do not have access to electricity or change with a transition based on equity, clean cooking, and billions more only have justice, and a reduction of harm. enough electricity for a single household light bulb or to charge a mobile phone. For decades, War on Want has been engaged in the global struggle to challenge War on Want’s report, ‘A Just(ice) corporate power, guarantee justice for Transition is a Post-extractive Transition’, communities affected by extractivism and illustrated how the push to produce hold complicit governments to account. electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, Communities potentially affected by a clean energy storage, and wind turbine material transition, especially Indigenous components, was unleashing communities, must have their rights to unprecedented levels of ‘transition’ metal free, prior and informed consent over 02 whether extraction can take place That is why we are calling for a Global protected. Green New Deal, to fight for public policies that guarantee energy as a public Our call to the UK government is to good, reduce the number of road vehicles critically question resource use. We need and create state of the art, free public to transform our high-intensity, wasteful transit systems; and focus our and growth-oriented economy, so that technological innovation on mineral humanity can thrive within ecological recycling and circular production to limits. Human rights abuses must be reduce extraction, and generate abundant abolished from mineral supply chains and green jobs. issues of over-consumption must be urgently addressed. Exploring supply and demand solutions for renewable energy minerals Asad Rehman Executive Director War on Want A material transition: 03 Glossary Artisanal or small-scale mining: emphasising the need to reduce global Individual miners working independently, consumption and production while or in small collectives, rather than for a advocating a socially just and ecologically mining company. sustainable society Blockchain: A system to distribute Due diligence: The investigation or data across a network of computers via exercise of care that a reasonable person the internet. or business exercises to avoid harm. Chain of custody: Documentation Energy transition: A pathway toward of the list of all organisations that take transformation of the global energy sector custody, i.e. ownership or control, of a from fossil-based systems of energy product in a supply chain. production and consumption to zero- carbon systems. Circular economy: An economy where the value of products, materials and Extractivism: High-intensity, export- resources is maintained in the economy for oriented extraction of common ecological as long as possible, and the generation of goods rooted in colonialism and the notion waste minimised. that humans are separate from, and superior to, the rest of the living world. Circular society: A holistic social transformation in which not only waste Green conflict minerals: Conflict is minimised, but consumption itself minerals that are particularly associated is questioned. with the energy transition. Conflict minerals: Minerals that are Green energy technologies: mined in conditions of armed conflict and Technology that converts energy from human rights abuses, or which are sold or renewable, natural sources, or processes traded by armed groups. that are constantly replenished. Corporate social responsibility: Green extractivism: Human rights and A type of voluntary business self-regulation ecosystems sacrificed to endless extraction with the aim of being socially accountable. in the name of “solving” climate change. Critical minerals: Metals and non- Green growth: Fostering economic metals that are considered vital for the growth and development, while ensuring economic well-being of specific economies, that natural assets continue to provide the yet whose supply may be at risk and for resources and environmental services on which there is not existing or commercially which our well-being relies. viable substitutes. Gross Domestic Product: GDP is the Decoupling: The separation of the monetary value of all finished goods and material basis and environmental impact services made within a country during a of productive activities from economic specific period, it is used to estimate the growth. size of an economy and growth rate. Degrowth: A set of theories that Just Transition: A contested term, critique the concept of economic growth, but essentially a framework to encompass continued 04 Glossary continued a range of social interventions needed to Strategic minerals: See critical minerals. secure workers’ rights and livelihoods Supply chain: The sequence of when economies are shifting from harmful processes involved in the production and production. Increasingly refers in climate distribution of a commodity. terms to a shift from an extractive economy to a sustainable economy. Tailings: Mining waste. Tailings are the materials left over after the process of Rare Earth Elements: A group of separating the valuable fraction from the chemically similar metallic elements often uneconomic fraction of an ore. occurring together, specifically the fifteen lanthanides, as well as scandium and Transition minerals: In the context yttrium. of the energy transition, those minerals which are vital to renewable energy Rights-holder: Individuals or social replacing fossil-fuels, either for extracting, Exploring supply and demand solutions for renewable energy minerals groups who have entitlements in relation storing or transmitting that energy. to specific duty-bearers. In general terms, all human beings are rights-holders under Urban mining: A term for metal the Universal Declaration of Human recycling, particularly when focused on Rights. recycling high-cost metals and electronic A material transition: and electrical waste. Acronyms 3TG: Tin, tantalum, tungsten GDP: Gross Domestic REE: Rare earth elements and gold (often defined as Product SDGs: Sustainable specific conflict minerals) ICMM: International development goals CSR: Corporate social Council of Mining and Metals SEC: US Securities and responsibility IGF: Intergovernmental Exchange Commission CTIP: Chinese Circular Forum on Mining, Minerals, UK: United Kingdom of Transformation of Industrial Metals and Sustainable Great Britain and Northern Parks Development Ireland DRC: Democratic Republic ILO: International Labour UN: United Nations of the Congo Organisations UNEA: United Nations DSTP: Deep Sea Tailings IRMA: Initiative for Environment Assembly Placement Responsible Mining Assurance UNEP: United Nations EITI: Extractive Industries IWIP: Indonesia Weda Bay Environment Programme