Nick Bainton and Emilka Skrzypek’s article was published in The Conversation. You can read it here:
For centuries, the Pacific Islands rich natural resources have been raided by mining interests with little to show for it. At the last Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Suva, Fiji in July, Pacific leaders endorsed the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific.
The strategy declares the urgent need to act on the climate crisis and calls for management and utilisation of the region’s natural resources to facilitate socio-economic growth and improve local lives. In the JTPac project we are interested in what happens when the global energy transition drives pressure to extract metals and minerals from what are some of the most volatile and fragile social and environmental systems in the world.
As Nick and Emilka write: ‘Action on climate change is vital – but the Pacific’s peoples must actually benefit from the mining of their resources. If this mineral rush isn’t done carefully, we could see the profits disappear overseas – and the environmental mess left behind for Pacific nations to deal with.’