Ecologically unequal exchange and transition-critical minerals: China, the US, and mining countries under shifting geo-economics

Tanguy Bonnet

No 2025-39, EconomiX Working Papers from University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX

Abstract: Low-carbon technologies are highly intensive in critical minerals for which extraction and transformation generate heavy socio-environmental negative externalities. Global trade flows of such materials and technologies are part of a singular macroeconomy, filled with geopolitical issues and national strategies.This paper aims to draw on environmental justice and ecological macroeconomics theoretical frameworks in order to assess the global material allocation of critical minerals and low-carbon technologies, and question its equity and efficiency, in the lens of the ecologically unequal exchange theory.Peripheral mining countries assume the heavy socio-environmental costs related to the extractive activities, while global trade flows enable an asymmetrical material allocation toward richer core countries. Two countries stand out : China, as the semi-periphery, and the US, as the challenged core.The paper also discusses how shifting geopolitics, geo-economic fragmentation and national strategies could modify such patterns of ecologically unequal exchange.

Keywords: critical minerals; global trade flows; ecologically unequal exchange; environmental justice; geo-economic fragmentation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F18 L72 Q37 Q42 Q56 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-hme, nep-ifn and nep-int
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:drm:wpaper:2025-39

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