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

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.