The Centre’s Emilka Skrzypek and her Co-Investigator, Nick Bainton from the University of Queensland were awarded a grant from The British Academy for a project titled: Just transition: A new framework for responsible extraction of energy transition metals for the renewable energy sector.
The project is a collaboration between the Department’s Centre for Energy Ethics, and University of Queensland’s Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining. It uses social sciences and humanities research to identify how the concept of a just transition could provide a new framework for the responsible extraction of ‘energy transition metals’ (ETMs) used by the renewable energy sector globally. It is focused on the Pacific Islands region which hosts numerous large-scale mines and enormous undeveloped deposits of ETMs – but that is also exposed to rising sea levels and catastrophic cyclones and droughts associated with climate change. The project considers the procedural, distributional and restorative justice dimensions of increased extraction of ETMs under conditions of climate change and asks: what would a just transition to a low-carbon future look like for the Pacific Islands region?
The project begun at the start of November 2021 and will conclude in April 2022.
