Electric vehicles: contested temporalities in critical minerals and resource extraction

Joseph Nyangon

Chapter 10 in Elgar Companion on Inequality and Natural Resources, 2026, pp 203-235 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The increasing demand for critical minerals like cobalt and lithium, driven by electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing, presents a paradox between rapid industrial expansion and long-term sustainability. The concentration of extraction in regions such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chile, and Argentina has led to significant socio-environmental challenges, including ecosystem degradation, labour exploitation, and the displacement of Indigenous communities. In the DRC, cobalt mining is often linked to child labour and hazardous working conditions, while lithium extraction in Chile intensifies water scarcity, threatening local agriculture and biodiversity. The urgency to secure these resources, reinforced by regulatory measures like the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), aims to promote ethical sourcing, yet the extraction-driven approach often exacerbates global inequalities. This chapter critically examines these contested temporalities, where the immediate economic incentives of resource extraction conflict with long-term environmental and social objectives. By advocating for community-centred governance, sustainable mining, and circular economy strategies—including recycling and material substitution—it proposes a place-based framework to balance resource security with equity, ensuring that the transition to EVs does not perpetuate the very injustices it seeks to mitigate.

Keywords: Critical Minerals; Electric Vehicles; Sustainable Mining; Circular Economy; Ethical Sourcing; Community Governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035327362
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