Climate Geopolitics, Critical Minerals Trade, and Sustainable Mining Governance in Indonesia

This interdisciplinary network combines expertise from political scientists, chemists, economists, and international law scholars to offer more holistic solutions to complex mining governance issues. Our goal is to understand the opportunities and challenges of the evolving mineral resource partnership between the EU and Indonesia, and how this cooperation influences climate adaptation strategies in the mining sector. Clean energy transitions significantly increase demand for critical minerals, and Indonesia accounts for a third of global nickel and tin production. As deepening trading relationships have shifted a large share of emissions from richer to poorer countries, Global South nations are increasingly resisting international decarbonization efforts. While extractive industries like nickel mining generate jobs and growth, they also destroy ecosystems, expose residential communities to health risks, and exacerbate social justice problems as many new mineral developments are located on land held by indigenous and land-dependent people. We will analyse how voters, civil society actors, and decisionmakers weigh minerals trade objectives against development and foreign policy goals. Economists and political scientists will collaborate to understand which factors influence public opinion on mining, legal scholars will collaborate with chemists to ensure that laws reflect the latest scientific understanding of mining impacts, and chemists will help social scientists quantify the true costs of pollution. By combining perspectives, each discipline will fill in crucial information that might not emerge within siloed fields of study. It will help develop a common language for discussing mining governance and provide insights on how to design laws that are feasible and enforceable.