Teresa Kramarz co-directs the Environmental Governance Lab and is the co-convener of the Accountability in Global Environmental Governance Task Force of the Earth System Governance network. Her work focuses on the governance of extractive industries in the renewable energy transition, environmental accountability, and the performance of partnerships led by international organizations.
We’ve been hearing a lot about rare earth minerals in the news lately. What are some of the environmental challenges that come with the demand for raw materials like copper, cobalt, zinc, lithium, and rare earth metals.
Low-carbon technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries depend on a steady supply of so-called “critical minerals.” As demand surges, governments are increasingly focused on securing reliable access to these resources and shielding manufacturing supply chains from potential disruptions. This and geopolitical security cocerns have been the leading focus of states like Canada, the US, and Europe. The ecological and social concerns of extracting these critical minerals have received much less policy attention.
Mining has a long history of producing significant environmental harms and social upheaval—and the push for renewable energy is, in many cases, intensifying these conflicts. That is because renewable technologies are very mineral intensive. In 2020, the World Bank estimated that, to meet the goal of a 2°C warming scenario, global production of lithium, graphite, and cobalt for battery storage would need to increase by nearly 500% by 2050. More recent projections from the International Energy Agency’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024 show that demand for lithium alone could grow by a factor of eight by 2040 under a net-zero scenario. Emergent literature is documenting cases in which the extraction of critical minerals for renewable energy is driving multiple forms of displacements. These include land dispossession, ecosystem degradation – with significant impacts on water and biodiversity, and commodity-dependent development.
Large-scale solar and wind projects can compete with agriculture, grazing, and community access to shared resources like water and pastureland—resources that many peasant and Indigenous communities depend on. Beyond land use, the environmental footprint of renewable technologies can be problematic. From the mining of raw materials to the disposal of solar panels and batteries, pollution and ecosystem damage occur throughout the lifecycle of renewable energy infrastructure. These impacts degrade the environment and threaten human health. In some cases, communities are forced to leave polluted areas; in others, they must remain in toxic environments with few alternatives, facing long-term risks from water contamination and other forms of industrial waste.
So, while these minerals are essential to address climate change, the way they’re being sourced is creating new environmental crises. My research emphasizes that we must urgently decarbonize our energy systems, but there is more than one pathway to decarbonization and we have to choose policies that prioritize ecosystems and communities.
How are indigenous communities affected by the extraction of these raw materials, and how are they involved in the decision-making process?
According to a recent study, 54% of global reserves of critical minerals are in Indigenous lands, and if you include peasant communities that goes up to 69% of all global reserves. So Indigenous communities are frontline communities in extraction sites yet they are often excluded from meaningful participation in decision-making processes that affect their land, water, and livelihoods. In many sites, mining concessions are granted without proper consultation or consent, despite international legal instruments such as the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Even when consultation processes are carried out, they are frequently criticized for being rushed, poorly translated, or held in bad faith. The result is a deep power imbalance: states and corporations may push ahead with extraction projects while Indigenous communities are left to resist through strikes, demonstrations, road blockades, legal action, or international advocac
What role can companies and governments play in ensuring ethical and responsible mining practices?
One of the biggest gaps lies in how the industry is governed. Most of the accountability standards meant to guide the extraction, transport, and recycling of these materials are voluntary—more suggestion than obligation. In recent years, governments, corporations, and advocacy groups have introduced a wave of frameworks aimed at improving oversight. But without real regulatory power behind them, many of these initiatives fall short. They often lack the authority to enforce compliance, leaving companies free to interpret—or ignore—the rules as they see fit. The result is a patchwork of uneven practices, with little recourse when environmental or human rights standards are violated.
You teach the undergraduate course ENV451H1: Environmental Justice. Can you tell us about the focus of the course and its real-world applications?
The course examines key dimensions of environmental justice in relation to a variety of case studies. We investigate the justice implications of toxic legacies, and future directions in research and action at a time of many environmental crisis. Students analyze how different actors deal with multiple vulnerabilities including class, racialized, and gendered identities across issues like biodiversity loss, climate change, and energy poverty. As a capstone course, it emphasizes experiential learning and provides many opportunities for students to apply academic concepts to real world cases. For example, one of the features of environmental injustice is the issue of invisibility, so we have a Wikipedia edit-a-thon in which students improve Wikipedia’s coverage of an environmental justice claim or claimants by editing an existing page or starting a new one. As one form of activism, many environmental justice groups put together toxic tours that examine the environmental inequalities and disproportionate environmental burdens confronting marginalized communities. So in this class students also design toxic tours to analyze different sites and histories of environmental harms.
You also teach ENV1197: Research in Environment and Sustainability, Part 1; a core course in the Master of Environment and Sustainability. What are the key concepts or skills students are expected to master by the end of this course?
Research in Environment and Sustainability is divided in two parts, the first trains students in the arc of the research process (from research question, significance, literature, and theory to methods) while the second part od the course trains students in specific research methods. This allows them to delve deeply into concrete means of inquiry that they will use to gather data for their graduate thesis.
ENV1197 is the first in this two-part series on research methods designed for MES students. Throughout their first semester in the program, students acquire the conceptual and methodological tools necessary to craft a research proposal. This proposal is grounded in a significant research question, supported by relevant literature and theory, and accompanied by an appropriate research strategy.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
From my mom: nurture your curiosity; participate with passion in the world you live; and paint your future on a large canvas
What’s the name of a book that’s left a lasting impression on you?
This is a hard one. I read a lot of mostly fiction for fun so here are my top 20 from the last few years. They are not all recently written but I have read or reread them recently:
1. Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart
2. Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower
3. Michael Crummey Sweetland’ and ‘The Innocents
4. Alfredo Bryce Echenique Un Mundo par Julius
5. Matthew Desmond Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
6. Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex
7. David Grann Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
8. Mat Johnson Pym
9. Sayed Kashua Dancing Arabs’ and ‘Second Person Singular
10. Barbara Kingsolver Demon Copperhead’ and ‘Flight Behaviour
11. James McBride Deacon King Kong’ and ‘The Good Lord Bird
12. V. S. Naipaul A House for Mr Biswas
13. Michael Ohl The Art of Naming
14. Richard Powers The Playground
15. Eduardo Sacheri Nosotros Dos en la Tormenta
16. Jose Saramago The Cave
17. George Saunders Lincoln in the Bardo
18. Wole Soyinka Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth
19. Khushwant Singh Train to Pakistan
20. Mario Vargas Llosa The Feast of the Goat’ and ‘Hard Times