ABSTRACT
Although transitioning to renewable energy sources is an important strategy to address climate change, relatively little attention has been allocated to how the supply chains associated with this transition is impacting community members who reside near the mining sites of ‘critical minerals’ – otherwise known as ‘green minerals’. Concomitantly, it is unclear whether the carbon footprint of all aspects of extracting and refining critical minerals, including its supply chains, produces a net gain in terms of addressing climate change. A similar calculation is murky as regards addressing governance challenges in mining sectors. Owing to its position as holding among the largest reserves of critical minerals, insights from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be employed as a means of addressing the latter question. Based on recently conducted fieldwork, we find that the ‘voices’ of the very people living near where the mining occurs are rarely incorporated as part of these debates and problem-solving efforts. Guided by an agential constructivist theoretical approach and informed by participant observations and other primary data, we examine and compare the extent to which meaningful stakeholder engagement (MSE) regimes, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and Africa Mining Vision (AMV), promote public goods envisioned by environmental and social impact assessments in the DRC in particular, and Africa more broadly.
