In addition to numerous engaging presentations, the CROSSJET team also organized an event on the topic of energy colonialism and indigenous territorial rights. Prof. Dr. Javier Lastra-Bravo, director of CROSSJET, discussed with indigenous experts Rodrigo Paillalef and Anexa Cunningham how European demand for critical raw materials impacts the right to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), access to water, and the territorial self-determination of indigenous communities.
Despite the differing contexts and raw materials across various regions of the world, an alarmingly clear trend emerged: Indigenous territories continue to be treated as “sacrificial zones” for the energy transition, which is being planned elsewhere. “Lithium mining for key technologies of the energy transition—such as electric vehicles and storage batteries—primarily supplies the raw material needs of the Global North,” explains Prof. Dr. Lastra-Bravo. “In indigenous territories in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, this results in significant social and environmental costs.” Due to the water-intensive mining process, water in desert regions, for example, is becoming increasingly scarce for people and crops.
Lithium is the focus of the CROSSJET research project “At the Crossroads of Global Just Energy Transition: EU’s Lithium Policy and Its Impact on Indigenous Communities in South America’s Lithium Triangle” within the research area “Environmental Sociology and Global Transformation”. CROSSJET aims to identify ways to shape a global energy transition that respects ecological limits and the rights of local populations. Collaboration with indigenous peoples affected by these impacts is an essential component of the research project. The five-year project is receiving approximately 1.95 million euros from the Volkswagen Foundation’s Change! Fellowships funding initiative.
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For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Javier Lastra-Bravo, Institute of Sociology, by phone at +49 511 762 5604 or by email at j.lastra.bravo@ish.uni-hannover.de.