Episode 18 of the Saving the World webinar series features Associate Professor Nick Bainton, Dr Éléonore Lèbre and Dr Emilka Skrzypek.
The prevailing solution to our planetary problem is a rapid transition to renewable energy-systems. Building these new energy-systems will, however, require vast amounts of minerals and metals. This much is well known, and governments and the extractive industries are now desperately trying to source these materials and capitalise on the latest resources boom, fuelling a rush for critical minerals and opening new resource frontiers, including the deep oceans.
Much less is known about the contradictions and risks that will accompany this particular solution to climate change. Many of the minerals and metals needed for renewables are located in places that are already acutely exposed to climate change. The Pacific Islands region is one such place. We expect that extractive pressures and perils will converge with the impacts of climate change well before the transition to renewables kicks in and reduces climate threats in places like the Pacific. We call this contradictory process Compound Exposure.
This presentation will characterise the features of compound exposure in the Pacific. We hope to open up discussion on policy pathways to avoid the worst effects of compound exposure in the Pacific, and beyond.
Read their recent publication in World Development here.
The ‘Saving the World’ webinar series, presented by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, releases a new episode each month, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity and human health. The webinars focus on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.
Event Speakers
Associate Professor Nick Bainton
Nick is an anthropologist at the ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet). He has spent the last 20 years leading research on the social and political impacts of resource extraction in the Pacific Islands region and beyond, more recently focusing on the impacts of supplying raw materials needed for global energy transitions.
Dr Éléonore Lèbre
Éléonore is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining in the Sustainable Minerals Institute, the University of Queensland. Her research centres on analysing spatial data to map the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) context around the global mining sector, mobilising these data to aid decision-making.
Dr Emilka Skrzypek
Emilka is a social anthropologist based at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where she is Deputy Director of the Centre for Energy Ethics.
Dr Hridesh Gajurel
Dr Hridesh Gajurel is a Laureate Research Fellow with the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse in the School of Regulation and Global Governance. He is a political economist who specialises in comparative capitalism, corporate governance, financialisation, and new institutional theory.