Justice in Critical Minerals Governance and Energy Transitions

This fellowship responds to the dearth of knowledge that leads to deep contestations over the origins, meaning and purpose of ‘justice’ in the transitions to net zero emissions. It develops a unique methodology called Hermeneutical Ethnography, defined as the collection, co-creation, and analyses of verbal and non-verbal communications, silences and voices (e.g. texts, symbols, speech) to co-create meaning for justice. The methodology offers an exchange of meaning between the producer, author or storyteller and the audience, which if holistically interpreted, allows them to share a deep sense of reality, whether fictional or factual. It enables the collection and analysis of aspirations that would otherwise be restrained in formal research designs. This FLF’s innovative methodology will capture and synthesise the ‘voices’ and ‘silences’ of people who are impacted but would otherwise not be heard in policymaking. Its premise: the impact of the extractive industry on the environment and society causes avoidable losses to biodiversity, livelihoods and socio-political order; inadequate granular data and the unsystematic consideration of local communities’ perspectives in decision-making account for the persistent grievances and violent protests that respond to these impacts. The lack of consensus is particularly pronounced around social, environmental, and distributional justice, and has mainly occurred between governments of developed and developing countries on the one hand, and mining companies and residents of mining communities on the other. At the macro-level, this has led to developing countries such as Ghana and Barbados formulating energy transition policies that do not urgently respond to the climate crisis. At the sub-national level, grievances and protests disrupt global supply chains. For instance, a week-long community protest in 2024 led by Indigenous People and local communities (IPLC) that blocked access to salt flats in the Atacama region of Chile led to billions of revenue losses. IPLC felt sidelined in the negotiations that strengthen the state control of Lithium, initiated by President Gabriel Boric. To reduce risk to the global supply of critical minerals, which are essential for clean technology necessary for the transition to net zero, justice in the transition should be urgently studied and actively communicated for uptake in the post-2030 UN sustainable development agenda. To achieve this requires a knowledge system that is multi-dimensional, built on trust, co-designed with organically generated aspirations in communities, and communicated through strategic global partnerships. The FLF will pioneer a novel knowledge system of bottom-up scholarship on justice using Hermeneutical Ethnography and the case studies of Lithium and other critical minerals mining communities in Australia, Chile and Ghana. It will develop and test a systematic framework for mitigating transitions in local communities by studying the ‘silences’ and ‘voices’ about justice for the environment, livelihoods, mining practices, and indigeneity. It is the first to nurture such interdisciplinary expertise and develop a sustained data-driven bottom-up justice framework. Urgently attending to justice in the transition is as important as the urgency in addressing the climate crisis through scientific and technological innovations. Scholars agree that unless concerted effort is made to resolve the contested interpretations of justice, the transitions would fail to achieve sustainable development. Yet, studies on justice since the 2015 SDGs and Paris Agreement remain conceptual; this fellowship will rectify that, offering both conceptual and distinctive empirical data and nurturing global interest through partnerships to ensure the post-2030 sustainable development agenda fully accounts for it.