Co-chair London Mining Network
Email: whit@gn.apc.org
Phone: +44 775 439 5597
Address: 80 Stanmore Road, Stevenage, SG1 3QE
The talk will present the contents of a new report published by War on Want called A Material Transition. [1] The report exposes the potential widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses that could be unleashed by the extraction of transition minerals – the raw materials needed for the production of renewable energy technologies. It highlights what can be done to avert this devastation and sets out a pathway for a globally just energy future. This involves considering what can be done in the key areas:
- To support and act in solidarity with mine-affected communities, particularly in implementing consent processes to stop the creation of potential ‘sacrifice zones’
- To consider how supply chain due diligence can better eradicate environmental and human rights abuses
- To focus on reducing our need for newly-mined minerals, focussing on the concept of a ‘circular society’.
The need is to ensure that plans for a Just Transition need to consider not just the Energy Transition, but all of the materials required for this essential societal shift. Unless all the necessary inputs, and their consequences can be considered – in a Material Transition – then it cannot be truly just.
References:
[1] https://waronwant.org/resources/a-material-transition
Biography
Andy Whitmore is currently a freelance contractor, primarily working as finance advocacy officer of the Deep Sea Mining Campaign. Andy has worked on the issues of mining & affected communities since becoming a founder member of the Minewatch collective in the late 1980s. He also helped to found London Mining Network, where he coordinated an EU Project and is currently co-chair of the organisation. He has been Coordinator at Indigenous Peoples Links (PIPLinks) and managing editor of the Mines and Communities website. Andy has an MA in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and is the author of “A Material Transition”, editor/author of “Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and the Extractive Industries”, co-author of “Indigenous Peoples and the Extractive Industries: Towards a Rights-Respecting Engagement”, as well as various articles or chapters on similar issues.
