Bolivia’s second largest lake has been completely dried out since 2015. This is due to global warming, which is accelerating evaporation – already very high at 4,000 metres altitude – as well as the mining industry, which consumes a significant amount of water. The Uru Murato people are trying to [...]Read the full article
The global digital and energy transition is increasing the demand for minerals. At the same time, resistance against projects is rising, support networks are being woven and initiatives to guarantee the rights of communities and decent working conditions are being [...]Read the full article
Following a decade of struggle, pensioners from Africa’s largest alumina plant and their families are finally able to benefit from their social security rights.Read the full article
In Montenegro, a single coal-fired power plant provides almost half the country’s electricity needs, but it may be forced to close if the country wants to meet its climate commitments.Read the full article
Peru, Chile and Colombia are the newest cards on the left in a region that is once again shifting in that political direction, as it did in the first decade of this century. But these are not such prosperous times as they were back then, and the agendas have [...]Read the full article
Juan Antonio Sanz:China has displaced Russia as the dominant power in Central Asia. It has done so thanks to its diplomatic and economic might. Russia’s decline highlights the fragility of relations with Central Asia based on Moscow’s military superiority.Read the full article
Steve Rushton:“Since the 1980s, scientists have driven the response to the unfolding climate emergency. Countering this, an industrial complex has developed to deny what is happening and stymie meaningful action, funded by the world’s most profitable fossil fuel [...]Read the full article
Australia’s political leaders have long supported the coal industry. With the industry now in decline, workers and trade unions are taking the lead to ensure a just transition.Read the full article
With impoverished populations regularly engaging in artisanal gold mining, fatal accidents are becoming increasingly commonplace. Critics point the finger at negligent mining companies and inadequate oversight legislation.Read the full article
It is the second most used resource after water and, like water, it could soon be in short supply. Sand is essential to the society we live in. But current demand is so high that it is being used faster than it can be replenished.Read the full article
CONNECTAS:The conflict in southern Chile and Argentina, involving political radicalisation and violence, shines a spotlight on an existential problem in Latin America – what is the place of the millions of historically invisibilised Indigenous [...]Read the full article
Worldwide, groundwater, which constitutes almost 99 per cent of all liquid freshwater reserves on earth, provides half of the water extracted for drinking water, agriculture and industry. A very small proportion is utilised on the African [...]Read the full article
Venezuela, an oil-producing power for many decades, is faced with the challenge of transitioning to green energy like the rest of the region. Its main obstacles are the lack of investment in technology and the absence of a national policy on the [...]Read the full article
Poland has closed two-thirds of its mines over the last 30 years, reducing the number of jobs in the sector from 300,000 to 80,000. The energy transition raises both hopes and fears. While miners understand the need for change, they fear for their future and the future of their [...]Read the full article
Tara Peel, political advisor at the Canadian Labour Congress, and John Mark Mwanika, programmes officer at Uganda’s Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union, discuss the impacts of the climate crisis on workers in Uganda and [...]Read the full article
“Every time there’s a big change, American workers get the short end of the stick, whether it’s deregulation, outsourcing, or free trade.” What is being done to ensure that the decarbonisation process is different?Read the full article
“Just a few years ago, the region’s trade unions were not interested in climate change or just transition. They were interested in wages, social dialogue, pension reforms, tax reforms, etc. But over the last four years or so, people have begun to understand why a just transition is so [...]Read the full article
In response to growing demand for the precious metals needed to fuel energy transition, companies are developing technology for exploring and mining the ocean floor and applying for licenses to do so. But international legislation protecting these ecosystems is still [...]Read the full article
Joseph Baines:Commodity traders wreak havoc on global markets and profit from ecological and social devastation. Can they be stopped?Read the full article
Beijing has used the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to boost its global image. And to strengthen its foothold in the MENA region, its interests, long limited to securing the flow of oil, have been broadened to include a range of areas, stretching from culture to [...]Read the full article
Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde:“No sufficiently solid legal framework currently exists to prevent the potential problems that lie ahead, include the possibility of direct violent clashes.”Read the full article
With the world gradually moving away from coal, Pakistan continues to rigorously extract from its estimated three million tonnes of reserves. But primitive working conditions and poor enforcement of existing laws led to the deaths of at least 208 miners in [...]Read the full article
Gold prices have risen steadily over the past two years, reaching an all-time high in mid-2020. In the Brazilian Amazon, men come to seek their fortunes on forest land that the federal government should protect, but which, more and more, is succumbing to the pressures of [...]Read the full article
Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde:Rapid technological progress and human need have brought us to a point where space mining and space tourism have already moved beyond the realms of science fiction and into the realms of the possible, becoming real options in the here and [...]Read the full article
Mexico is reluctant to part with fossil fuels. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s energy strategy is firmly committed to new hydrocarbon projects and the generation of dirty energy, to the detriment of renewable sources such as wind and solar [...]Read the full article
Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde:With its bid to join the space race, the United Arab Emirates is not only seeking to bolster its national pride, its human capital and its dream of regional hegemony, but also to improve its chances of competing in a highly demanding niche market, and even to whitewash its image as an [...]Read the full article
The issue of the materials used to produce low-carbon technologies is of fundamental importance and has been the subject of widespread discussion. The water consumption needed for the extraction of minerals and the manufacture of these technologies is also essential, yet far less [...]Read the full article
Almost four years after the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights recognised the Ogiek’s ancient title of the Mau Forest and ruled that they should be allowed to return there, the Kenyan government is yet to implement this [...]Read the full article
Agathe Smyth:A new regulation came into force on 1 January 2021 with the aim of changing practices around the importation of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold to the EU.Read the full article
“Sensitivity to the currently unfolding climate and environmental crisis is unequally distributed. Those who are directly affected are not always those who are most concerned. The populations most exposed to the effects of environmental imbalances are not always the most worried about the future [...]Read the full article
Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde:Morocco is continuing to score points in its overt bid to gain total control of Western Sahara, tipping the balance ever more clearly in its favour. The UN and the ‘Group of Friends’ have long since given up on jeopardising their ties with Rabat for the sake of the [...]Read the full article
Argentina’s trade unions are faced with the challenge of putting a just energy transition on the agenda, a transition combining sustainability with the principles of social and environmental justice.Read the full article
Despite the government’s stated intention to put an end to the practice, child labour remains a reality in Congo’s mining sector. In the absence of effective political coordination to address the problem, trade union, community and non-profit leaders are working to tackle the root causes as well [...]Read the full article
Agathe Smyth:
