{"id":21333,"date":"2021-06-02T11:21:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T09:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catapa.be\/?p=21333"},"modified":"2021-06-02T11:21:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T09:21:49","slug":"the-eu-cant-mine-its-way-out-of-the-climate-crises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catapa.be\/en\/the-eu-cant-mine-its-way-out-of-the-climate-crises\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU can’t mine its way out of the climate crises"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The EU can’t mine its way out of the climate crises<\/i><\/b><\/h1>\n

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Today CATAPA joins 180+ communities, organisation and academics to tell the EU to abandon its plans to expand dirty mining as part of EU Green Deal and Green Recovery plans.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In 2019, the European Commission published its European Green Deal, an action plan outlining climate and environmental policies and initiatives to be taken forward in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Despite laudable intentions, these plans have at their heart the damaging and illogical idea of ‘green growth<\/a>‘ and assume ‘business-as-usual’ consumption of energy and materials in the EU.<\/p>\n

In particular, as they stand, Europe’s Green Deal plans will lead to a dramatic increase in demand for mineral and metals that the European Commission intends to meet through a large number of new mining projects – both inside and outside the EU.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”21371″ img_size=”full” css_animation=”bounceInUp”][vc_column_text]This planned reliance on mining to deliver the Green Deal is a cause of major concern for civil society around the world.<\/p>\n

Mining companies are responsible for an enormous human and ecological toll on every continent. The sector is responsible for extensive human rights violations<\/a>, conflicts with and within affected communities<\/a>, and the exploitation of labour and exacerbation of socio-economic inequalities. It is also a significant contributor to climate change<\/a>, global biodiversity loss and water stress.<\/p>\n

Increasing material demand and the EU’s plans to meet it through new mining projects will escalate all of these problems. Mining-affected communities in Europe and their allies in civil society oppose the continuous expansion of the mining industry and challenge the dominant narrative of unlimited growth and policies which uphold it.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”21374″ img_size=”full” css_animation=”bounceInUp”][vc_column_text]The release of this collective statement outlines a civil society analysis of the EU’s current plans and suggests how the EU can address the systemic issues underpinning endless extractivism and turn the tide toward a more just and sustainable future.<\/p>\n

The recommendations include the critical need for the EU and Member States to realise in law communities’ right to free, prior and informed consent, including the Right to Say No, as well as to put urgent measures in place to achieve absolute reductions in demand for – and consumption of – raw materials in Europe.<\/p>\n

We must urgently and rapidly transition our energy, transport and economic systems to renewables, but relying on expanding mining to meet the material needs of the renewable transition will replicate the injustices, destruction and dangerous assumptions that have caused climate breakdown in the first place.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”bounceInUp”]<\/p>\n

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In other words, we can\u2019t solve our problems with the same thinking that created them in the first place.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Together, in solidarity with allies in the North and South, we call for:<\/strong><\/p>\n