When: Monday, 5 May 2025, 17:00 - 18:30
Where: Konferenzraum, Department of Political Science, NIG, 2nd floor, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna & online
Speaker: Dr. Emilka Skrzypek (Centre for Energy Ethics, University of St. Andrews, UK)
Organisation: Project Beyond Hot Air Project – Conversations around critical raw materials supply for the 'green' transition together with the Austrian – South Pacific Society OSPG
Registration for online participation: https://forms.gle/wRcwpzVY33Un4um46
Please drop us a line if you attend in person: bha.powi@univie.ac.at
Abstract
The prevailing solution to our planetary problem is a rapid transition to renewable energy-systems. Building these new energy-systems will require vast amounts of minerals and metals. This much is well known. Much less is known about the contradictions and risks that will accompany this particular solution to climate change. Many of the minerals and metals needed for renewables are located in places that are already acutely exposed to climate change, such as the Pacific. We expect that, in those places, extractive pressures and perils will converge with the impacts of climate change well before the transition to renewables kicks in and reduces climate threats. We call this contradictory process compound exposure. In this presentation we will discuss the features of compound exposure in the Pacific, hoping to open up a discussion on policy pathways to avoid its worst effects in the Pacific, and beyond.
This talk is based the recent paper (2025) ‘Compound exposure: Climate change, vulnerability and the energy-extractives nexus in the Pacific’ co-authored by Nick Bainton (ANU), Emilka Skrzypek (St Andrews) and Éléonore Lèbre (UQ) and published open access in World Development: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.106958.
