The global switch to renewable energies is intended to slow down climate change, but the raw materials required for this – cobalt, copper, lithium and nickel – are themselves part of a system that puts a strain on nature and people. In impressive images, the project shows the often overlooked consequences of this change in the mining regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chile and Indonesia.
While solar energy, wind power and electromobility are considered clean solutions, the question arises: at what cost? In the cobalt mines of the Congo, people work in precarious conditions, often barefoot and without protection in unsafe tunnels. In Chile, lithium is extracted from the earth in huge evaporation ponds, while water is becoming scarce for the population. And in Indonesia, nickel mining has cleared entire areas of forest and destroyed ecosystems. These regions bear the burden of the energy transition, while the economic benefits usually end up elsewhere – for example at the large refineries in China.
