New Opportunities, More Challenges: The Convergence of Human Rights and Climate Crisis Pressures for a Sustainable Transistion of the Chilean Mining Sector

Abstract

Context: Climate crisis mitigation efforts have become highly dependent on copper and lithium extraction to drive a global transition towards electromobility and decarbonization. However, mining operations inherently alter the biosphere and have an extensive historical record of human rights violations. Society thus finds itself in a conundrum regarding whether it is possible to expand mining operations while ensuring local communities do not disproportionately bear the adverse effects. Purpose: This thesis investigates how the pressures for human rights protection and climate crisis mitigation converge in the Chilean mining sector. While the two agendas have traditionally been disconnected, the close interrelatedness is increasingly recognized in policymaking and academia, ZiWh YRiceV calling fRU a ³climaWi]aWiRn´ Rf hXman UighWV. HRZeYeU, iW iV not yet clear how the agendas converge and their potential to push for a sustainable transition in different contexts. Methodological Approach: A qualitative analytical model based on primary and secondary data has been used to analyze our data through a conceptual framework stemming from the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions. Findings: Pressures linked to climate crisis mitigation and human rights protection converge differently depending on the issue in question. High levels of convergence are linked to a higher potential for a sustainable transition to occur in the respective element of the mining regime effectively. Nevertheless, we find indigenous rights to be a field of poor convergence of these SUeVVXUeV, SURYing WheiU ³climaWi]aWiRn´ WR be highl\ cRmSle[. We idenWif\ Whe dichRWRm\ between the global and local nature of the pressures, the lack of intense landscape pressures, and supporting technological niches as factors determining this low convergence. Implications: The findings of this study shed light on how the mining context conditions the future outlook of the mining regime in Chile. It points out how different actors articulate their pressures to push for a sustainable transition and shows that convergence is not always straightforward, diminishing the potential of sustainable transitions.