Local injustices of the lithium production network

ESCOSTEGUY, MELISA; DIAZ PAZ, WALTER; IRIBARNEGARAY, MARTÍN; STERN, HELEN; CLAVIJO, ARACELI; ORTEGA INSAURRALDE, CARLOS; VENENCIA, CRISTIAN; BRANNSTROM, CHRISTIAN; HUFTY, MARC; SEGHEZZO, LUCAS

Sussex, Inglaterra

Conferencia; POLLEN 2020: Contested Natures: Power, Possibility, Prefiguration; 2020

Political Ecology Network

The Puna region of northern Argentina is part of the so-called ?lithium triangle? that also includes fractions of Chile and Bolivia. Transnational and domestic companies have been rushing to the area to extract this metal, an essential component in lithium-ion batteries. Mining companies claim that they always work closely with local communities but some local indigenous leaders complain about a number of negative impacts on their ancestral lands and say companies are not giving much back in compensation for what they take. The fairness of the distribution of social and environmental impacts across the lithium production network is, at least, contested. In this article, we explore that distribution at the micro scale putting special emphasis on the effects on potentially vulnerable local communities. We used a mixed-methods research approach that combines quantitative analysis of qualitative information within a conceptual framework that draws from energy justice, the global production networks approach, and political ecology. We focus our analysis on the only two lithium projects currently in operation in Argentina: Mina Fénix and Salar de Olaroz. Around 550 different types of documents were coded with MaxQDA to identify social and environmental impacts and injustices. Our findings show that impacts on local communities can be associated to the four interconnected tenets of modern justice theory: distributive, procedural, cosmopolitan, and recognition justice. We outline some actions decision makers could take to prevent or minimize some of the negative social-environmental impacts that a transition to a low-carbon economy can have on vulnerable local communities.