CEMMS Webinar: Mining Green Transition Minerals - Ruling out Justice?

How do tensions and conflicts around green transition minerals look like in Finland, in the Arctic, and across the globe? What are the key issues they reveal about justice in transitions to a low-carbon future? What is the role of community engagement in these transitions?

These questions and more will be at the center of the 1st CEMMS Webinar organized by the Research Center on Mining, Minerals and Society (CEMMS).

Welcome to hear from Dr. Diana Arbelaez Ruiz, Dr. Mariana Walter, Dr. Julia Loginova, and Doctoral Researcher Johanna Leino and participate in the discussion!

Webinar schedule

10:00-10:05 Welcome by Tuija Mononen, Head of CEMMS

10:05-10:10 Introduction to the topic by Dr. Diana Arbelaez Ruiz (CEMMS, UEF)

10:10-10:35 Johanna Leino: The Finnish perspective on the just transition and mineral exploration conflicts

10:35-11:00 Julia Loginova: The green mineral rush, just transitions, and the future of community consultation and consent: Arctic and global perspectives

11:00-11:25 Mariana Walter (UAB, EJAtlas): Energy Transition -led Extractivism and Global Environmental Justice

11:25-11:55 Discussion

11:55-12:00 Closing words

Get to know the speakers

Dr. Mariana Walter is an ecological economist and political ecologist based at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). Her research addresses extractive industries, social metabolism, socio-environmental conflicts, environmental justice, knowledge co-production, and social transformations. She is part of the Direction and Coordination group of the Environmental Justice Atlas, a global registry of socio-environmental struggles. She is the scientific coordinator of the Envjustice project.

Dr. Julia Loginova is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland, Australia. She is a human and economic geographer with specific interests in pathways to sustainability and justice in the mineral and energy sectors. Using mixed methods, she bridges data science with qualitative research and community engagement. She has been undertaking applied research on global production networks and value chains, governance and socio-economic redistributions, and community participation and consultation across the Arctic region, Australia, Russia, and China. She is currently a Chief Investigator on the ARC Discovery project.

Dr. Diana Arbelaez Ruiz is a postdoc researcher at the RESOURCE RC, the University of Eastern Finland. She is currently doing research on the social and political risks in the value chains of energy transition minerals. She has previously worked in the Sustainable Mining Institute, at the University of Queensland, and completed her doctoral thesis on indigenous community participation in post-conflict mineral resource governance in Colombia. She also has extensive experience in the areas of development, social responsibility, and sustainability with an emphasis on the extractive sector.

Johanna Leino is a geographer and doctoral researcher in Environmental Policy at CEMMS, the University of Eastern Finland. Her doctoral research focuses on the tensions of justice in the low-carbon transitions and natural resource governance in Finland. Recently, she has studied mineral exploration conflicts, the Mining Act reform, and just transitions in Finland. She is now working on the YHYKE project, which focuses on environmental justice and natural resources in the context of rural Finland. She is also a Research Fellow in the Earth System Governance Project.