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Ecological crisis and green capitalism: toward a climatization of extractive industries?

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Abstract

The European mining revival strategy correlates with the agenda of transition to a “green” and “climate-friendly” economy. In this article, we focus on the climatization of extractive discourses and practices in Europe, France, and Andalusia in order to show the changes in discourses while noting the continuity of practices. While discourse justifying the mining revival is circulating within Europe, the operationalization of extractive reindustrialization is materializing in different ways across the Member States, revealing specific constraints and dynamics at a regional level. In Spain, for example, more than a dozen mining projects have been launched since the late 2000s, particularly in Andalusia, where reindustrialization has been associated with greening and climatization. In France, where ecologization and reindustrialization have been integrated into a discourse on securing sovereignty, none of the projects submitted over the last decade have been successful, which highlights the difficulty of reconciling greening, climatization, and extractive reindustrialization. We show that the climatization of the extractive industries in Europe largely remains a discursive process that does little to transform mining practices and activities—other than by contributing to legitimizing their redevelopment, under certain conditions which we highlight.

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Notes

  1. The current elaboration of a “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials” (which was in the process of being adopted by the European Commission between March and June 2023) confirms this trend: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_1661

  2. First: mining and climate. Second: responsible mining, social license to operate, social acceptability, corporate social responsibility, sustainable mining, climate-smart mining. Finally: climate, climate action, climate change, climate crisis, ecological crisis, decarbonization, low carbon, net zero emission, net zero carbon, decarbonization and low carbon, climate and decarbonization, ecological modernization, climate mitigation.

  3. “But we can do all this and still engage in responsible mining. It’s high time the environmentalists also give some thought to our material inheritance and recognized that we must try to enhance it, lest we bequeath to future generations poverty along with beauty.” In Allen Overton JR, J. (1976). Governmentally Imposed Limitations on Mining in the United States. Nat. Resources Law, 9, 541.

  4. The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy; The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum; The Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration; The Society of Mining Professors; The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy; and The Asociación Iberoamericana de Enseñanza Superior de la Minería

  5. Sustainable development, equity, participatory decision-making, accountability and transparency, the precautionary principle, efficiency, and polluter responsibility

  6. To date, climate-smart mining initiatives have been launched in Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire (Forest Smart mining Pilots), Mali and Burkina Faso (RE Integration into Mines), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Cobalt Value chain assessment), South Africa (elaboration of a CSM Roadmap), Madagascar (CSM Roadmap and pilot), Indonesia (CSM Pilot), Serbia (CSM Pilot), Georgia and Armenia (Tailings retreatment), within the framework of a “south-south knowledge exchange” program between South American and African partners, in Chile (Anglo’s Los Bronces mine, El Soldado and Chagres projects), in the USA (Rio Tinto’s Kennecott project in Utah), in Finland (Anglo’s “Forest Smart” Mining), and in Canada (Rio Tinto’s airborne survey over northern Saskatchewan’s Wollaston Copperbelt)

  7. https://www.riotinto.com/about/innovation/smart-mining

  8. https://www.riotinto.com/news/stories/five-things-low-carbon-future

  9. Innovative, Non-Invasive and Fully Acceptable Exploration Technologies: https://www.infactproject.eu/

  10. Vision and Roadmap for European Raw Materials. Research and Innovation Roadmap 2050. A Sustainable and Competitive Future for European Raw Materials: http://veram2050.eu/

  11. Among the 13 “Research & Innovation” measures for the minerals and metals industries, eight recommendations are based on a promise of technical or technological improvement and four on improving knowledge and the ability to produce and evaluate data.

  12. “The idea was never to be an operator, it was an exploration company” (Interview, BRGM).

  13. Ministère du Redressement productif (2013). Une nouvelle France industrielle

  14. “L’avenir de la France dans l’industrie minière, selon Emmanuel Macron,” Les Echos, August 23, 2015

  15. https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/investir-dans-france-2030-remise-au-gouvernement-du-rapport-varin-sur-securisation

  16. National Council for Industry, Press kit: signing of the strategic contract for the Mining and Metallurgy Sector 2018–2022, French Government, January 18, 2019

  17. International Copper Study Group, The World Copper Factbook 2021, 68 p., https://icsg.org/

  18. Junta de Andalucía, “El resurgimiento de la minería andaluza (II): claves locales que transforman nuestra filosofía de vida,” Noticias, 06/06/2021

  19. Interview with a representative of the Region of Andalusia, October 2019

  20. In 2013, the unemployment rate reached 35% of the active population and 65% for those under 25 years of age (compared to 25% and 55% respectively on a national scale). Source: National Institute of Statistics

  21. Junta de Andalucía, Estrategia minera de Andalucía 2020, 2016, p. 56

  22. Agreement of June 1, 2021 of the Government Council of the Region of Andalusia

  23. The text was eventually approved on the 31st of July of 2023.

  24. Press release by the Region of Andalusia: “La Junta presenta a los Next Generation un proyecto minero de 3.100 millones para la Faja Pirítica,” 04/04/2021

  25. https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/recovery-plan-europe_en

  26. https://www.aminer.es/

  27. Interview with a member of the board of AMINER, April 2022

  28. Interview with a civil servant of the Mining Department of the Region of Andalusia, October 2021

  29. MINER has contributed to the creation of a national association that has for instance participated in the discussions around the “Roadmap for Sustainable Management of Mineral Raw Materials” (see above). In the spring of 2020, AMINER obtained the status of an “essential” activity in the mining industry, to protect it from the disruptions caused by health restrictions (quoted interview with a member of its board).

  30. https://www.ismc-iberiamine.com/es/nosotros/. This cluster particularly supports the development of investment projects for “sustainable mining” in order to apply for European grants.

  31. Interview with the project manager of a construction and mining subcontractor in Andalusia, August 2022

  32. Atalaya Mining (2021). Proyecto para tramitación de concesión derivada de permiso de investigación Valverde n°14.920. Procedimiento AAU. Documento 1. Proyecto técnico ambiental, pp. 39 and 42-43

  33. Endesa press release: “Endesa y Atalaya Mining avanzan en su alianza con la firma de un acuerdo de suministro de energía a largo plazo para la mina de Riotinto,” 01/07/2022

  34. Interview with Atalaya Mining’s Sustainability Officer, February 2022

  35. https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/un-global-compact-finding-solutions-global-challenges

  36. Interview with Atalaya Mining’s Environmental Department Manager, March 2022

  37. According to the carbon footprint public registry of the Ministry of Ecological Transition: https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/cambio-climatico/temas/mitigacion-politicas-y-medidas/organizaciones-proyectos.aspx

  38. “How can I be sure, even if I have made this product [copper concentrate] sustainable, that from the end of my cycle [of production], from the beginning of another cycle, these sustainability criteria are followed? […] I’m a bit lost, I don’t know if the concentrate is sold directly to the smelter, if there is an intermediary…” (quoted interview with Atalaya Mining’s Environmental Department Manager).

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Funding

Doris Buu-Sao is benefiting from a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (MINPOL project n° 40227, 2021-2023) for her research on mining renewal in Andalusia. Sébastien Chailleux has received funding from the French government’s Investissements d’Avenir via E2S UPPA junior chair POLSOL (2018-2023). Sylvain Le Berre has received funding from INRAE via the project TRAPOMA (2022-2023).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament d’Antropologia social, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Doris Buu-Sao

  2. CERAPS, Université de Lille, Lille, France

    Doris Buu-Sao

  3. Centre Emile Durkheim, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Pessac, France

    Sébastien Chailleux

  4. ETTIS, INRAE, Bordeaux, France

    Sylvain Le Berre

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  1. Doris Buu-Sao
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The preparation of the material, the collection and analysis of the data were carried out by each of us and pooled collectively for this article. The manuscript was written and approved collectively. That is why we are signing this article in alphabetical order.

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Correspondence to Sylvain Le Berre.

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Buu-Sao, D., Chailleux, S. & Le Berre, S. Ecological crisis and green capitalism: toward a climatization of extractive industries?. Rev Agric Food Environ Stud (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41130-023-00201-w

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