Description
The global transition toward renewable energy has positioned critical materials at the nexus of environmental sustainability and geopolitical competition. As nations race to secure supply chains for essential resources, a complex value regime is emerging, characterized by competing priorities and contested narratives. This paper examines how different resource imaginaries shape governance frameworks for critical minerals within the context of the European Unions recent Critical Raw Materials Act.
Utilizing a narrative approach, the paper investigates three dominant resource imaginaries relating to security, the green transition, and just transition, that structure contemporary debates around critical minerals governance. While these imaginaries shape policy frameworks, we argue that they risk either depoliticizing mineral extraction through technocratic sustainability discourse or securitizing resource access through various crisis narratives. Both tendencies risk marginalizing local environmental justice concerns and bypassing community consultation through regulatory fast-tracking. The paper demonstrates how the alignment between dominant resource imaginaries and local visions for the ‘good life’ is crucial for developing resilient governance frameworks.
The paper concludes with a discussion on how responsive governance frameworks might better integrate global strategic imperatives with place-based visions of development, to avoid exacerbating socio-environmental conflicts and ensure just transitions.
