Podcasts
Energy transition minerals: questions, consent and costs are key
On this Mongabay’s episode, Indigenous rights advocate and executive director of SIRGE Coalition, Galina Angarova, and environmental journalist/author of the Substack newsletter Green Rocks, Ian Morse, detail the key social and environmental concerns, impacts, and questions we should be asking about the mining of elements used in everything from the global renewable energy transition to the device in your hand.
What is the Green EconomY ?
This radio program introduces you to a group of people who are working to demand and achieve a just energy transition, in which Indigenous Peoples' rights are at the center. We introduce you to the Securing Indigenous Peoples' Rights in the Green Economy Coalition, also known as the SIRGE Coalition.
The Importance Of The SIRGE Coalition
As the world's demand for minerals needed for green and renewable technologies increases, the SIRGE Coalition calls on governments, decision-makers, businesses, and corporations to avoid making the mistakes of the past and to protect the rights and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples.
The Demand For A Just Energy Transition
During the transition to a green economy that ensures human well being and social equity, and significantly reduces environmental risks and ecological scarcity, it is essential to involve, listen to, and respect the leadership of Indigenous Peoples.
The Objectives Of The SIRGE Coalition
Have you heard about the SIRGE Coalition?
It is a group made up of Indigenous leaders and allied organizations whose objective is to ensure a just transition to the green economy. In this radio program, we hear about the objectives of the SIRGE Coalition.
The Members Of The Coalition
The SIRGE Coalition, a group dedicated to ensuring respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples during the transition to a green economy, is made up of Indigenous leaders and allied organizations. In this radio program, we meet the member organizations.
Transition Minerals And Indigenous Peoples
Fossil fuels and other conventional energy sources release many greenhouse gases that harm the environment. For this reason, there is global talk of the need for a transition towards the use of cleaner energy sources and the development of technologies such as battery storage systems, and other cleaner sources of energy. However, for the creation of these energy sources, so-called “transition minerals” are necessary, the extraction of which increases the danger of new displacements and the dispossession of territories from Indigenous Peoples. The intention of this series is to inform and educate Indigenous Peoples about their right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent when it comes to minerals found on our lands and territories!
In March of 2022, Cultural Survival’s Executive Director Galina Angarova (Buryat) and Director of Programs Avexnim Cojti (Maya K’iche’) traveled to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with Members of the European Parliament, environmental and civil society groups engaged in advocacy efforts around the new European Union battery regulation and the proposed horizontal due diligence law.
In this podcast, Cultural Survival's Avexnim Cojti met with Editor in Chief of Indigenous Russia, Dmitry Berezhkov (Itelmen), and spoke about the impacts of mining on Indigenous communities.
We're witnessing the acceleration of the transition to a green, low carbon, and clean economy and the increase in demand for transition minerals such as nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper. This skyrocketing demand is driving a wave of investment into new, expanded mining projects. These projects are promoted as "green" because they aim to supply minerals used for renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles.
Hablar de minerales de transición parece esperanzador para la humanidad, sin embargo, muchos de estos minerales esenciales para la fabricación de automóviles eléctricos, dispositivos electrónicos y turbinas eólicas, son extraídos de los territorios de los Pueblos Indígenas y dejan enormes daños ambientales, por lo que se han convertido en una amenaza. En este programa, la activista chilena Karen Luza denuncia cómo la extracción de cobre y litio, dos minerales de transición, ha impactado de manera negativa la vida de las comunidades Indígenas en la región de San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.
En Jujuy, Argentina, existen más de 400 comunidades kollas, guaraníes, atacamas, así como de otros Pueblos Indígenas en proceso de autoidentificación. Durante el 2019, dos comunidades de esta región vivieron una intensa lucha por la defensa de sus territorios y el respeto de sus derechos. Se trata de la Comunidad Indígena Angosto El Perchel y la Comunidad Salinas Grandes Guayatayoc, cercana a la frontera con el Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia.
En el caso de la comunidad Indígena Angosto El Perchel, la principal exigencia era que siempre que se pretendan realizar proyectos en sus territorios, se cumpla con una consulta conforme a los estándares del Convenio 169 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo, y en el caso de la comunidad de Salinas Grandes Guayatayoc se exigía la salida de una empresa que pretendía extraer litio.