October 27, 2025
By ABr
Rafael Cardoso
Manganese is extracted in Rio Preto, a region in the municipality of Marabá, southeastern Pará, and sold to countries such as the United States, Mexico, Norway, China, and India. The metal is highly sought after because it is considered a strategic mineral for the energy transition – the shift from fossil fuels to energy sources that produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, which drive climate change.
Manganese is found, for example, in hybrid and electric car batteries. However, a study by researchers Ailce Alves and Larissa Santos shows that behind the discourse of sustainability lies a trail of environmental and social impacts on the local population.
Dust, mud, accident risks, tailings dam failures, and internal conflicts are among the impacts of mining in Rio Preto. According to the researchers, this suggests that the energy transition may be used merely as a cover for mining companies to continue perpetuating practices that harm nature, disrupt socio-environmental relations, and deepen inequalities.
The study is part of the book series Politicizing the Climate: Power, Territories, and Resistance. The first three printed volumes were launched Monday (Oct. 20) in Rio de Janeiro. The fourth volume is scheduled for release at the end of the month.
The work is the result of a partnership between the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation; the Graduate Program in Social Sciences in Development, Agriculture, and Society at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (CPDA/UFRRJ); the Environmental Inequality, Economy, and Politics Research Collective; and Funilaria Publisher.
The collection offers reflections on disputes over energy policy, land management, and the commodification and financialization of nature. Its goal is to strengthen alliances in the defense and promotion of socio-environmental justice, combating environmental racism and green colonialism – the interference of wealthy countries in environmental preservation efforts in developing nations.
“We aim to analyze and problematize the policies, projects, and actors involved in discussions on climate change and the solutions proposed by dominant agents. We also highlight the territorial, class, racial, and gender implications, as well as the historical asymmetries between the Global North and South,” explains one of the collection’s organizers, social scientist Elisangela Paim.
“It is worth noting that these policies do not operate without resistance. On the contrary: in the various contexts analyzed and experienced, multiple forms of struggle emerge. It is with these forms of resistance that the collection engages, offering theoretical and political support to strengthen proposals and re-existences,” adds Paim.
The debates presented in the books aim to go beyond the hegemonic narratives on climate change and the energy transition – topics that will be featured at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), to be held in Belém next month. Among these narratives, the authors note, are the strategies of governments and companies in agribusiness, mining, and fossil fuel production, which fail to promote structural change and depoliticize the climate debate.
“The texts in the collection show the impacts of a supposed green transition, which has resulted in a form of colonial continuity worldwide. Two conditions are created, driven by wealthy countries: within their own territories, green is prioritized, while the resulting damage is sent abroad,” says David Williams, director of the Global Climate Justice Program at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in New York.
“Industrialized countries, historically responsible for most emissions, are obliged to fund mitigation, adaptation, and reparations for losses and damages in the Global South. But this promise has never been fulfilled. What we call ‘climate finance’ continues to rely on loans rather than justice,” she adds.
ABr
Agência Brasil (ABr) is the national public news agency, run by the Brazilian government. It is a part of the public media corporation Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), created in 2007 to unite two government media enterprises Radiobrás and TVE (Televisão Educativa).
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