Collegio futuro winter school 2026, workshop II Energy transition: critical row materials
Europe’s path to a carbon-neutral future depends on critical raw materials, yet their extraction and supply raise complex environmental and social questions. This workshop explores how new mining projects reshape territories and examines the justice dimensions of the EU’s green transition.
With the EU Green Deal to combat climate change and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, there is an increasing demand for raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel, essential for developing renewable and low-carbon technologies (wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, etc.). Several of such minerals have been classified as “critical”, considering a supply risk due to the high demand. Moreover, European countries produce a negligible amount of critical raw materials (CRM), they are thus depending on the import from other countries, especially China. To secure a reliable supply chain, and to enhance local mineral extraction, the EU has adopted the CRM Act in 2023 (European Commission, 2023; Kowasch et al., 2024).
This workshop aims at investigating the territorial transformations of new CRM projects in Europe. We ask if the “green transition” is rather an add-on of different energy resources (carbon, oil and renewable energies), so that a real transition is unlikely to happen, as suggested by Fressoz (2024). With a focus on political ecology approaches and environmental justice, we also question social-environmental impacts, challenges and opportunities for local populations in mining affected areas.
References:
- European Commission (2023). Critical Raw Materials Act. Online:
- Fressoz, J.-B. (2024). Sans transition – Une nouvelle histoire de l‘énergie. Éditions du Seuil, Paris.
- Kowasch, M., Batterbury, S.P.J., Baumann, C. et al. Not in my backyard? Prospects, problems and perceptions of lithium extraction in Austria. Energ Sustain Soc 15, 21 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-025-00521-3
Supervision: Prof. Matthias Kowasch, Sorbonne University
Matthias Kowasch is (full) professor of Geography at Sorbonne University, Paris (France) and at the Research Unit “Médiations – Sciences de lieux, sciences des liens”. He holds a German-French PhD in Geography from the universities of Heidelberg and Montpellier III. His research focus on mining governance, political ecology, critical-emancipatory education for sustainable development, ecological “transition”, and Indigenous knowledge, with a geographical focus on Western Europe and South Pacific Islands, in particular New Caledonia and Vanuatu.