While the just transition is gestured at as a solution to the climate crisis, the extraction of critical minerals that underlies the transition often violates human rights and causes environmental damage, underscoring the limitations of the growth-focused economic model. A truly just transition is ultimately a regenerative one, of ecological resilience and reduced resource consumption. But until that can be achieved, green energy supply chains must be improved. Workers and others directly impacted by the energy transition’s thirst for critical minerals must be treated with dignity, agency, and autonomy.
Imagery from Kolwezi, DRC, which has been referred to as a disappearing city, because of the encroachment of cobalt mines on its urban area.
Attribution: Map Data: Google, Airbus Technologies, 2023.