MEASURES FOR A FAIR ENERGY AND DIGITAL TRANSITION

The climate crisis is already a reality that forces us to adopt an energy transition, abandon fossil fuels and bet on renewable energies. However, the current political and economic approach of the great economic powers does not lead us to make a just and truly sustainable transition.

Transition plans, in which the private electric vehicle plays a leading role, are generating a sharp increase in the demand for certain metals and minerals. The European Union has joined this global competition and called them critical raw materials. In addition, it is signing strategic agreements with several countries of the Global South to provide itself with its extraction.

These trade agreements are presented as beneficial to both parties, but are based on unequal international relations, since they do not facilitate the energy transitions of emerging countries or their ability to industrialise and benefit from their own resources.

In addition, mining is the most polluting sector and causes serious environmental damage, such as soil degradation, water pollution, loss of biodiversity or greenhouse emissions. It also causes strong social impacts, such as the displacement of communities, conflicts over land use, poor working conditions, effects on public health, lack of transparency in processes, and corruption, among others. Deep-water mining also involves irreversible environmental damage.

→ Made by SETEM Catalunya.
→ With the support ofAmigas de la Tierra

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Minerals for energy transition and human rights violations

In the last decade alone, more than 600 human rights violations directly related to the extraction of “green transition” minerals have been recorded around the world, especially in Mexico and Central and South America and on the African continent. Since 2012, 1,910 women defenders have been killed to protect our planet. The EU, however, is establishing trade links with some of these countries.

EU responsibility for waste generation

EU member states and other high-income countries use 6 times more mining resources than lower-income countries, but produce less than 5%. In this way, they shift the environmental and social impacts of mining to the countries of the Global South, treating them as mere sources of raw materials at the service of the unsustainable growth model of the Global North, and repeating colonial ties.

És possible fer una transició justa?

First of all, the waste of resources must be stopped: in the world, 62 million tonnes of electronic waste were generated in, containing critical raw materials, but only 22.3 % was duly recycled.

Secondly, the demand for critical raw materials in the Global North must be reduced by. According to the study published by Amigas de la Tierra, if various measures of circular economy and sufficiency were carried out, could be reduced by 34% of the average demand, and cover up to 67% of this demand already reduced from recycling only. The need for primary mining in mines would thus be reduced by 49%.

OTHER PROPOSED MEASURES

→ Change the mobility model, drastically reducing the number of private vehicles and limiting the size of electric batteries, since electric vehicles represent between 50 and 60% of the demand for materials for low carbon technologies; and bet on public transport, active mobility, shared mobility and the decrease in the number of journeys. → Extend the useful life of wind, photovoltaic and electric vehicle technologies. → Develop the urban mining industry to collect and recycle sufficient materials to meet much of the demand between 2020 and 2050 from recycling. → Plan the supply of raw materials from a global justice perspective that avoids reproducing existing international inequalities and takes into account an equitable distribution of resources at a global level. → Ensure that policies related to raw materials and mining projects have the participation of local communities affected inside and outside the European Union. → Prioritize collective models, such as energy communities, which guarantee energy sovereignty, energy literacy of the population and efficient consumption. → Do not allow mining in protected areas.