Minerals and the metals for the energy transition: Exploring the conflict implications for mineral-rich, fragile states

Abstract

Minerals and metals will play a key role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. As the demand for green energy technologies—including solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and energy storage—continues to increase, so too does the demand for the minerals required to develop and deploy them. This growing demand should serve as an economic boon to those countries that are home to the principal reserves of strategic minerals for the transition, including cobalt, lithium and rare earths. However, in countries struggling with political instability, where governance for the mining sector is weak, the extraction of these minerals could be linked to violence, conflict and human rights abuses. This chapter, adapted from the report Green Conflict Minerals: The fuels of conflict in the transition to a low-carbon economy, explores the conflict and violence implications of the low-carbon transition for mineral-rich, fragile states. It builds on extensive desk-based research, stakeholder consultations, case studies and a mapping analysis. It seeks to understand the extent to which increased demand for the minerals critical to green energy technologies could affect fragility, conflict and violence in producing states, and explores what would be required of the international community to mitigate these local and national threats.