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Lithium Might Hold the Key to our Clean Energy Future, but Will this Star Metal Fully Deliver on its Green Potential?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2020

Gabriela QUIJANO Open the ORCID record for Gabriela QUIJANO [Opens in a new window]
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Extract

Salinas Grandes is a vast salt flat in the high-altitude Puna region of Salta and Jujuy, two north-western provinces of Argentina. It is situated in one of the world’s driest regions, with an extremely fragile ecosystem. Salinas Grandes is so iconic and beautiful that Argentinians voted it amongst the country’s top seven natural wonders in May 2019.1 In addition to its beauty, this stunning desert of salt also holds one of the largest reserves of lithium in the world. Lithium is a light and versatile metal used to produce, among other things, the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EV). As global efforts to phase out fossil fuels from our transport systems and adopt clean energy alternatives increase, lithium is becoming increasingly critical. It is no wonder, therefore, that industry has coined it the ‘white gold’.2 Salinas Grandes is only one of many salt lakes in North West Argentina which, together with Bolivia and Chile, form what is known as the ‘lithium triangle’. It is estimated that these three countries alone account for more than half of the world’s lithium.3 Global demand for lithium to produce EV is expected to grow rapidly over the coming decade. To meet this demand, the lithium industry will require significant investment to ramp up additional supply.4 As a result, all eyes have turned to the ‘lithium triangle’ and investment in the region has soared in recent years.5 For the three developing countries, this represents a unique opportunity to attract much-needed foreign investment and boost economic growth.6

Keywords

Electric vehiclesFair transitionHuman rightsIndigenous peopleLithiumSalinas GrandesWater
Type
Developments in the Field
Information
Business and Human Rights Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 276 - 281
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK. The author declares that she worked for Amnesty International from 2005 until December 2019. This piece is partly informed by work, including field work, conducted in Argentina as part of an Amnesty team of researchers. However, the statements of fact and analysis are based fully on publicly available sources, all duly cited in footnotes. The author wrote this piece in her personal capacity. Neither the research nor writing of this piece have been commissioned or funded by any third party.

References

1 Jujuy Government, ‘Salinas Grandes fue elegida como una de las 7 Maravillas Naturales Argentinas’ (7 May 2019), http://prensa.jujuy.gob.ar/2019/05/07/salinas-grandes-fue-elegida-como-una-de-las-7-maravillas-naturales-argentinas/ (all URLs in this piece last accessed 26 February 2020).

2 See, e.g., ‘The White Gold Rush – A Battle for Supremacy in the Lithium Triangle’, The Economist (15 June 2017), https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2017/06/15/a-battle-for-supremacy-in-the-lithium-triangle.

3 European Commission, ‘Report on Raw Materials for Battery Applications’ (22 November 2018), https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/3rd-mobility-pack/swd20180245.pdf, 21–22.

4 Roskill, https://roskill.com/market-report/lithium/; Lilac Solutions, http://www.lilacsolutions.com/lithium

5 The Economist, note 2. ‘Las inversions para buscar litio crecieron casi un 1,000%’, Periódico El Inversor Energético y Minero (May 2019).

6 Pía Marchegiani, Jasmin Hoglund Hellgren and Leandro Gómez, Extracción de Litio en Argentina: un estudio de caso sobre los impactos sociales y ambientales (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, 2019), 6,10.

7 Amnesty International, ‘Amnesty Challenges Industry Leaders to Clean up their Batteries’ (21 March 2019), https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/03/amnesty-challenges-industry-leaders-to-clean-up-their-batteries/.

8 Ibid.

9 Based on information provided by the mining companies on their websites and some official records such as those held by the US Geological Survey: ‘Argentina Lithium Map’ (24 November 2017), https://www.minem.gob.ar/servicios/archivos/7672/AS_15115524571.pdf.

10 Laura M Lombrana, ‘Saving the Planet with Electric Cars Means Strangling this Desert’, Bloomberg Green (11 June 2019), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-06-11/saving-the-planet-with-electric-cars-means-strangling-this-desert.

11 Marcelo Sticco, ‘El Impacto de la Explotación de Litio en las Reservas de Agua Dulce – Provincia de Jujuy, Argentina’ (October 2018), 1.

12 ‘El Despegue del Litio. El furor por el “oro blanco”’, Revista Energía (May 2019), 16.

13 Marcelo Sticco, Patricio Scravaglieri and Antonella Damiani, ‘Estudio de los Recursos Hídricos y el Impacto por Explotación Minera de Litio – Cuenca Salinas Grandes y Laguna Guayatayoc, Provincia de Jujuy’ (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, August 2019), file:///C:/Users/spess_000/Downloads/FARN-Estudio-de-los-recursos-h%C3%ADdricos-y-el-impacto-por-explotaci%C3%B3n-minera-de-litio%20(1).pdf.

14 Consejo de Pueblos Atacameños, ‘Consejo de Pueblos Atacameños expusieron detalles del conflicto hídrico que se vive en la cuenca del salar de Atacama’; Consejo de Pueblos Atacameños, ‘Impacto de la gran minería en la cuenca del Salar de Atacama’, both available at: http://www.lickanantay.com/#!/-noticias/. See also Amanda Romero, Jose Aylwin and Marcel Didier, Globalización de las Empresas de Energía Renovable: Extracción de Litio y Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas en Argentina, Bolivia y Chile (‘Triángulo del Litio’),(Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (December 2019), 20.

15 A January 2018 study by Chile’s Non-Metallic Mining Committee concluded that decreases in water levels in three salt flats of the Atacama Desert were linked to the increase in brine pumping by lithium mining. Cited in Superintendencia del Medio Ambiente con SQM Salar S.A., Procedimiento Administrativo Sancionatorio Rol F-041-2016 (7 March 2018), 3.

16 Comunidad Indígena Atacameña de Peine con Superintendencia del Medio Ambiente, Primer Tribunal Ambiental de Antofagasta, Causa Rol R-17-2019 (26 December 2019), 75.

17 2001 General Environmental Law 25.675, arts 11–13.

18 For an analysis of these problems based on a detailed examination of two case studies, see Marchegiani, Hoglund Hellgren and Gómez, note 6.

19 Sticco, Scravaglieri and Damiani, note 13, 34. Marchegiani, Hoglund Hellgren and Gómez, note 6, 39–40, 42–43. Calls for comprehensive hydrological studies are repeated across the Puna region. See, e.g., Consejo de Pueblos Atacameños, ‘Ministerio de Medio Ambiente se comprometió a realizar estudio hídrico en cuenca del Salar de Atacama’, http://www.lickanantay.com/#!/-noticias/.

20 Miguel Soler, Jujuy’s Mining and Hydrocarbons Secretary, speech delivered at the 2019 International Seminar on Lithium in South America held in Jujuy, Argentina, on 18–19 June 2019.

21 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, art 32(2).

22 Marchegiani, Hoglund Hellgren and Gómez, note 6, 15–16.

23 Amnesty International, ‘Consulta Previa, el Caso de Salinas Grandes’ (Informe 2018), http://amnistia.org.ar/informe2018/consulta-previa-caso-salinas-grandes; Amnistía Internacional Argentina, ‘Preocupación por Avance Minero sin Consulta a Comunidades Indígenas en Jujuy’ (14 February 2019), https://amnistia.org.ar/preocupacion-por-avance-minero-sin-consulta-a-comunidades-indigenas-en-jujuy/.

24 Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, ‘The Argentine Supreme Court of Justice is Called to Defend the Right to a Healthy Environment’ (18 December 2019), https://farn.org.ar/archives/27368. On 26 June 2013, communities initiated a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. They also brought the case to the then United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. For more detail, see Amnesty International (Informe 2018), note 23.

25 Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, note 24. The Argentinian organization Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales has found negative impacts on the rights of indigenous communities living near other lithium projects in the region. See Marchegiani, Hoglund Hellgren and Gómez, note 6.

26 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/policy/european-battery-alliance_en.

27 https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/ares-2018-5951053_en#plan-2018-3169.