topic: Energy

topic: Energy

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Indigenous communities oppose Papua forest rezoning for palm oil
- Indigenous communities in Indonesian Papua have filed an administrative objection against forestry ministry decrees that reclassify more than a million acres as nonforest land, clearing the way for oil palm development under the government’s food estate program.
- The rezoning last September was carried out without the communities’ knowledge or consent, and the affected areas include swaths of forest that they have proposed as customary forests.
- The communities only learned of the decision months later, after NGOs obtained the decree. If the ministry fails to respond to their objection, they plan to sue in the State Administrative Court.
- The expansion aligns with the government’s drive to boost food and biofuel production, but Indigenous rights advocates warn the plan could cost communities their forests, livelihoods and cultural ties to the land.

Spiro secures $50 million to expand Africa battery-swapping network
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Financing for electric vehicle transport is ramping up in Africa as confidence rises in the potential for battery swapping, fast charging and other technologies. Spiro, Africa’s largest electric mobility operator, has secured $50 million in debt financing from African Export-Import Bank, or Afreximbank, U.S.-based climate fintech platform Nithio and the Africa […]
Malawi’s solar boom is leaving a toxic legacy of lead waste
- The rapid adoption of solar home systems in Malawi is producing a matching increase in the use of lead-acid batteries.
- These batteries have a relatively short lifespan, especially when used with photovoltaic systems, and informal recycling processes release toxic lead and acid into the environment.
- There are more durable, less toxic batteries available, but they cost more.
- Malawi and other countries need better regulation and recycling infrastructure to ensure the benefits of small solar systems are not accompanied by environmental harms.

Amazon villages build autonomous energy systems after mega-dam failed pledges
- A pilot project in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Reserve is providing 24-hour electricity through an integrated system of solar panels and river-based hydrokinetic turbines.
- The project’s hydrokinetic turbines use specialized filter systems and slow-rotation grids designed to generate electricity without harming local river fauna.
- Roughly 990,000 people in the Brazilian Amazon still lack access to electricity despite the region hosting some of the world’s largest hydropower facilities.

Indonesia’s steel expansion risks a surge in greenhouse gas emissions
- As global demand for steel is rising, Indonesia’s steel industry is one of the country’s largest industrial greenhouse gas emitters and is set to become far more polluting if current trends continue, according to a nonprofit report.
- Indonesia’s high emissions stem largely from its reliance on coal-based blast furnace steelmaking, which uses coal both as a chemical input and as a source of the extremely high heat required to smelt iron ore.
- The climate footprint of Indonesia’s steel industry is closely tied to public health risks for communities living near major production hubs; steelmaking releases hazardous air pollutants that are linked to respiratory and cardiovascular disease and reduced productivity.
- The Ministry of Industry has introduced policies intended to promote more sustainable practices across industrial sectors, including steel, but the recent report found that these policies lack binding sector-specific emissions targets, clear transition timelines and enforcement mechanisms.

Landslides claim more than 220 lives in DRC’s Rubaya coltan mining site
- In the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 200 people have died in landslides at an artisanal coltan mine in Rubaya, in the east of the country.
- The accident occurred as a result of successive risky activities on the rugged and unstable terrain, which was prone to landslides; prior to the accident, heavy rains had fallen on the region.
- According to an expert contacted by Mongabay, safety measures are not generally respected in these artisanal mines where thousands of Congolese “diggers” operate.

Ethiopia’s Renaissance mega-dam fuels energy hopes and regional anxiety
- Ethiopia inaugurated Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam in 2025, positioning itself as a regional energy exporter while millions of its citizens still lack access to electricity.
- Egypt, which lies downstream in the Nile Basin, views the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as an existential threat, warning of risks to Nile water security and regional stability.
- Scientists caution that dam failures or mismanagement could trigger catastrophic flooding in Sudan and Egypt.
- Critics argue that the dam may serve as a geopolitical and public relations tool, while its environmental and social impacts remain insufficiently assessed.

What’s happening with the global treaty to trace critical minerals?
- Colombia has been pushing for a binding global minerals treaty at several key U.N. meetings, including at the seventh U.N. Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) last December.
- It hopes to address the socioenvironmental problems caused by minerals and metals mining through the creation of international traceability and due diligence mechanisms across mineral supply chains.
- At UNEA-7, a joint proposal put forward by Colombia and Oman encountered resistance from several member states for traceability, political and economic reasons, ending with a nonbinding resolution that was stripped of its original ambition. Traceability, which experts warn is essential to address mining risks, did not make it into the final resolution.
- NGOs and certain states say they will continue pushing for a global treaty on traceability at upcoming conferences, while other mineral frameworks emerge — including those seeking to accelerate investment in critical mineral mining.

Solar energy gains ground across Africa, but challenges persist
Solar energy is rapidly expanding across Africa, giving hope for electrifying more of the continent with renewable energy. The Central African Republic, for example, generates more than a third of its energy from sunlight, giving it the highest penetration of solar in its electricity mix in Africa. That’s according to the latest report from the […]
More than 87m people impacted by climate-related disasters in 2025
In 2025, more than 200 climate-related disasters affected more than 87.8 million people worldwide, according to preliminary figures from the International Disaster Database analyzed by Mongabay. The disasters include flash floods, landslides, severe storms, wildfires and droughts. Drought and food insecurity impacted the largest number of people. In Syria, which faced its worst drought in […]
Indonesia revokes forest and mine permits over role in deadly Sumatra landslides
- Indonesia has revoked the permits of 28 companies after a post–Cyclone Senyar audit found environmental violations that authorities say worsened deadly floods and landslides in Sumatra in late 2025, which killed about 1,200 people.
- The revoked permits cover about 1 million hectares of forests and include major players such as pulpwood producer PT Toba Pulp Lestari, marking a shift toward framing permit enforcement as post-disaster accountability.
- Two high-profile projects in the Batang Toru ecosystem were hit: a nearly completed hydropower plant and the Martabe gold mine, both long criticized for operating in landslide-prone terrain that’s the only habitat of the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan.
- Environmental groups have welcomed the revocations, but warn the move is incomplete, calling for transparency, ecosystem restoration, protection against permit transfers to new operators, and broader action to halt deforestation in vulnerable watersheds.

Flores’ geothermal ambitions collide with justice, culture & local resistance
- Indonesia’s decision to turn Flores into a “geothermal island” was meant to anchor its renewable energy ambitions on a single, high-profile stage.
- Now a decade on, the plan has collided with local realities on a rugged, underdeveloped island where energy access remains uneven and development pressures are intensifying.
- A new study traces how this tension has made Flores an unexpected flashpoint in the national debate over how the energy transition should be carried out.

Indonesia backs away from coal exit test case amid financial and political pushback
- Indonesia has abandoned plans to retire the Cirebon-1 coal plant early, citing technical and financial concerns, dealing a blow to what was meant to be a flagship test case for coal phaseout backed by international climate finance.
- Analysts say the decision reflects deeper structural resistance to moving away from coal, driven by long-term power contracts, coal subsidies, and policies that make early retirement costly while keeping coal artificially cheap.
- The reversal risks undermining Indonesia’s credibility with global partners and investors, particularly under initiatives like the JETP, and exposes inconsistencies between political pledges on renewables and binding policy action.
- Critics argue early coal retirement would benefit Indonesia overall if full costs were counted, including health and environmental impacts, but political ties between coal interests and policymakers, along with uncertainty in global climate finance, continue to stall progress.

After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster
- Cyclone Senyar triggered catastrophic floods and landslides in northern Sumatra in late 2025, but scientists and activists say decades of deforestation and landscape alteration in upland watersheds largely determined the scale of the destruction.
- The heavily hit Batang Toru landscape, home to the world’s only Tapanuli orangutan population, has become a national test case after the government ordered eight mining, energy and plantation companies to halt operations pending rare watershed-wide environmental audits.
- Investigations have raised concerns that forest clearing by a pulpwood producer, a hydropower project and a gold mine on steep terrain may have destabilized slopes and worsened runoff during extreme rainfall.
- Experts warn that once forest cover is lost in fragile tropical watersheds, disaster risks can persist for decades, making effective law enforcement — rather than weather alone — decisive for Batang Toru’s future.

Southeast Asia’s 2025 marked by fatal floods, fossil fuel expansion and renewed mining boom
- 2025 has been a year of global upheaval, and Southeast Asia was no exception, with massive disruption caused by changes in U.S. policy and the intensifying effects of climate change.
- The region is poised at a crossroads, with plans to transition away from fossil fuels progressing unevenly, while at the same time a mining boom feeding the global energy transition threatens ecosystems and human health.
- On the positive side, deforestation appears to be slowing in much of the region, new species continue to be described by science, and grassroots efforts yield conservation wins.

A nuclear power plan exposes Kenya’s deeper land rights issues
- Across Kenya, millions of people living on community land remain legally vulnerable, as complex, costly and often obstructive processes prevent them from securing collective land titles under the Community Land Act.
- Because untitled community land is treated as state property, county governments can lease or allocate it for large infrastructure and commercial projects, creating power imbalances and exposing communities to displacement with little say or legal protection.
- In Uyombo, on Kenya’s southern coast, this systemic problem has resurfaced amid plans for the country’s first nuclear power plant, which residents say threaten their land, livelihoods and access to coastal ecosystems, and has proceeded without meaningful consultation.
- The lack of formal land ownership also leaves communities uncertain about compensation, reinforcing fears that development projects can override local land rights — a pattern researchers say is rooted in colonial land policies and persists nationwide.

Record fossil fuel emissions in 2025 despite renewables buildout, report says
Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are projected to reach a record 38.1 billion metric tons in 2025, an increase of 1.1% from 2024, according to the 2025 Global Carbon Budget. The report, now in its 20th edition, was released Nov. 13 as a preprint. It compiles national energy and emissions data from […]
‘The bargain of the century’: An economist’s vision for expanding clean energy access in Africa
- The recent U.N. climate conference (COP30) in Brazil resulted in the Belém Action Mechanism (BAM) to bring about a just energy transition that embraces renewable energy and expands access to power.
- But details on how the transition will be accomplished remain elusive.
- Economist Fadhel Kaboub contends that the transition should not reinforce existing inequalities in Africa and other parts of the Global South.
- Kaboub sees an opportunity in the energy transition to remedy those power imbalances, which he calls “the bargain of the century.”

The first amphibian to halt a hydroelectric dam now takes on the climate crisis
- Known in Brazil as the admirable little red-bellied toad, the rare Melanophryniscus admirabilis is endemic to a stretch of the Forqueta River in Rio Grande do Sul state. It made history in 2014 when it halted the construction of a hydroelectric dam that would have destroyed its only habitat.
- After the 2024 floods, researchers returned to the area to assess the impacts of the state’s biggest climate catastrophe on its environment.
- With just over a thousand individuals in the wild, the species is listed as “critically endangered”; in addition to climate change, the little toad suffers from the advance of monocultures and the threat of wildlife trafficking.

Mining controversies: The hidden toll of green energy
- Recent research shows that mining for minerals needed in the green energy transition takes an extensive toll on forests, soils, water, wildlife habitat and communities.
- Projections indicate that demand for energy transition minerals is expected to increase sixfold between 2020 and 2040; the rush to approve mining licenses in response to the growing demand only heightens the potential risks of conflict and social injustice.
- An analysis finds that the production of construction materials, such as concrete, has a significantly higher impact than the direct extraction of transition minerals themselves.

South Africa considers site near African penguin colony for third nuclear power plant
South African state electricity company Eskom is reevaluating two sites to host the country’s third nuclear power plant, having previously dismissed both for an earlier facility. The two potential sites are Thyspunt, on the Eastern Cape coast, and Bantamsklip, near Dyer Island in the Western Cape, home to a significant, but declining colony of critically […]
Nepal Indigenous leaders refile writ petition against hydropower project
- In 2024, Indigenous Bhote-Lhomi Singsa people filed a writ petition against a hydropower project expressing concerns over what they say is a flawed EIA, forged signatures and community rights violations in Lungbasamba landscape, a biocultural heritage home to endangered flora and fauna.
- More than a year since the petition, leaders say the construction work has progressed in the absence of an interim order from the court to halt the construction, which has impacted their livelihoods, supported by farming, yak herding and trade in medicinal herbs.
- Demanding the project’s cancellation with an interim order to halt the ongoing construction activities, and to declare the EIA void, leaders filed another petition in November.
- Given the criticisms over the project and impacts outlined by the EIA report, the company says it still looks forward to the project, which is set to be completed in 2028.

Boom in burning waste for fuel could put human health and environment at risk
- Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) — conglomerated waste often composed of up to 50% plastic — is being burned globally in waste-to-energy incinerators, cement kilns, paper mills, and by other industries.
- Proponents say RDF reduces fossil fuel use and produces cleaner energy, while diverting waste from landfills.
- Critics say a lack of monitoring often hides RDF’s true environmental and human health footprint, and that when burned alongside fossil fuels, the technology can significantly worsen pollution. Health issues potentially connected to RDF contaminants range from cancer to hormone disruption.
- That’s a major concern as RDF ramps up, with countries in the Global South especially starting to use and dispose of waste in this way. Burning RDF and the incineration of plastic waste has been linked to greenhouse gas emissions and also extremely toxic pollutants such as dioxins.

UK, Dutch agencies pull funding from Total’s controversial Mozambique LNG project
U.K. and Dutch export credit agencies have withdrawn their financial commitments for French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies’ gas project in Mozambique, in an unprecedented move that marks the latest setback for the controversial project. UK Export Finance (UKEF), a government agency, and Netherlands-based Atradius, both of which provide companies with loans, guarantees and insurance […]
In Chocó, river defenders say race for energy transition threatens lifelines
- Colombia is looking to accelerate its energy transition amid growing international demand for strategic minerals. But activists from El Carmen de Atrato in Chocó, western Colombia, allege that El Roble, the country’s only active copper mine, is harming the environment and local community.
- The Atrato River, which flows beneath El Roble, was granted constitutional rights in 2016, yet activists raise long-standing concerns over water pollution, tailings dam risks and alleged failures to meet conservation commitments in the area surrounding the mine.
- Critics say the mine has been allowed to operate under antiquated environmental regulation, with a modern environmental licence still under review.
- El Roble rejects all allegations, stating it is a responsible business that complies with environmental regulations. The company says it is the primary source of employment in El Carmen and points to its track record of local investment and community projects.

East African court dismisses controversial oil pipeline case in setback to communities
On Nov. 26, the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) dismissed an appeal filed by four African NGOs, marking the end of a landmark case against the construction of a contentious oil pipeline. The case against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), expected to become the longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world, […]
For fossil fuel-dependent islands, ocean thermal energy offers a lifeline
- Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is gaining renewed attention as a reliable, 24/7 clean-energy option for tropical islands, with a pilot project in the Canary Islands showcasing its potential and building on small-scale tests in Japan and Hawai‘i.
- The technology uses the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold deep water to evaporate a working fluid, drive a turbine and regenerate the cycle — offering massive theoretical potential to generate up to 3 terawatts globally.
- Seawater-based heating and cooling systems, including seawater heat pumps and seawater air-conditioning (SWAC), are already in use and could be scaled up rapidly to cut emissions when paired with renewables.
- Major barriers include cost, investor reluctance and environmental concerns, especially around deep-water discharge and ammonia use, prompting calls for large-scale demonstration projects to prove first prove their viability and safety.

Can two Amazons survive? Invisible e-waste is poisoning the world
- E-waste, which refers to discarded electrical or electronic devices, is the fastest growing domestic waste stream in the world, and it is highly toxic, threatening public health. Much of this e-waste, largely produced by rich countries, is dumped in poor countries, with Asia and Africa major destinations.
- Because poor countries mostly lack the highly sophisticated equipment and processes needed to dismantle and recycle these complex composite products safely, unskilled scrap workers, including children, plunder them for resalable components, often with a disastrous impact on their health and the environment.
- Increasingly, the torrent of discarded cell phones and obsolete computers is greatly exacerbated by invisible e-waste: a vast, varied plethora of microchip-containing products, ranging from vaping devices to e-readers, toys, smoke detectors, e-tire pressure gauges and chip-containing shoes and apparel.
- Invisible e-waste greatly adds to developing world recycling challenges. The U.N. Environment Programme warns that “the increasing proliferation of technological devices has skyrocketed the amount of electronic waste worldwide” with nations now facing “an environmental challenge of enormous dimensions.”

Critical minerals dropped from final text at COP30
Delegates at last month’s U.N. climate change summit, or COP30, adopted a new mechanism to coordinate action on a just energy transition worldwide toward a low-carbon economy, away from fossil fuels. However, a proposal at the conference in Brazil to include language on critical minerals within the mechanism’s scope was scrapped at the last minute […]
Negotiating Africa’s Energy Future
A decade after countries agreed to the Paris climate agreement, Mongabay reports on an idea often invoked when discussing Africa’s path toward a low-carbon future: a just energy transition. Reporters from across the continent explore what “just” and “clean” energy mean for Africans. These stories show African countries are pursuing their own journeys toward more […]
Fossil fuel failure eclipses Africa’s wins at COP30
- African negotiators secured significant gains on just transition, including recognition of clean cooking and energy poverty, marking the first time these priorities entered the formal United Nations climate negotiations.
- Adaptation finance advanced but remains insufficient, with wealthy nations pledging to triple support only by 2035, despite Africa’s urgent needs and widespread concern over loan-heavy climate finance.
- Forest conservation gained new momentum, with broad backing for a global deforestation roadmap and fresh funding initiatives like Brazil’s Tropical Forever Forest Fund (TFFF) and the Canopy Trust targeting Amazon and Congo Basin conservation.
- Failure to agree on a fossil fuel phaseout puts Africa at heightened risk, with scientists warning that if carbon emissions continue to rise unabated, they could fuel more extreme events like droughts and floods, destabilize food systems, and displace people.

Lesotho communities allege greenwashing by project transferring water to South Africa
- The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), a scheme to transfer water from Lesotho’s river systems to neighboring South Africa, also aims to provide hydropower to Lesotho’s people.
- However, complainants from communities impacted and displaced by the complex of dams, water channels, feeder roads, and bridges accuse the developers of promoting the LHWP as a climate mitigation project and ignoring its impacts on their livelihoods and the environment, and call it “greenwashing.”
- The project is degrading the environment, polluting water streams used by residents, destroying cultivable land used to grow food crops, eating into forests, and reducing access to pastures, according to the complaint filed with the African Development Bank (AfDB), which is partly financing the LHWP.
- “We are not just being denied benefits from the project, we are suffering harm from it,” the complaint says.

‘The perfect ingredients’: WRI Africa deputy director shares vision for the continent’s energy transition
- Rebekah Shirley, the deputy director for Africa at the World Resources Institute (WRI), says that increasing energy access for Africans, 600 million of whom lack basic access to electricity, requires thinking about entire economies.
- In a conversation with Mongabay, Shirley notes that technological advances, especially for renewable energy, are no longer the hurdle they once were.
- Instead, bringing energy access to households, community services and industry will result from investment in manufacturing, commerce and industry that will support the expansion of universal household energy access, Shirley says.
- Mongabay spoke with Shirley in the lead-up to the 2025 U.N. climate conference, COP30, in Belém, Brazil.

As Zambia eyes green minerals, Kabwe’s poisoned past looms large
- Zambia is seeking to capitalize on the green energy boom through copper and other critical minerals, but campaigners warn that without real accountability and community participation, the next mining wave could create new “sacrifice zones,” repeating a painful history.
- The town of Kabwe remains severely polluted after decades of lead and copper mining, with more than 95% of children showing dangerous blood lead levels.
- The “Zambia’s Sacrifice Zone” campaign, launched by young activists, journalists and NGOs, uses storytelling and radio to demand accountability, raise awareness and amplify community voices in the fight for environmental justice and cleanup.
- Authorities have rolled out remediation projects with World Bank support, testing tens of thousands of residents and improving water and infrastructure, but activists say compensation is lacking and enforcement of environmental laws remains weak.

South Africa to lift fracking moratorium in Karoo Basin, despite concerns
South Africa plans to lift a 13-year moratorium on shale gas exploration in the ecologically sensitive Karoo Basin, despite serious environmental and climate concerns raised by advocacy groups. In 2011, the government imposed a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo, a semidesert region spanning more than 400,000 square kilometers (154,000 square miles) across northern […]
AI data center revolution sucks up world’s energy, water, materials
- Data centers are springing up across tropical Latin America, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Africa. But these facilities are often unlike those of the recent past. Today’s advanced data centers are built to provide artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity by Big Tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon.
- As large AI data centers proliferate, they are competing for water, energy and materials with already stressed tropical communities. National governments frequently welcome Big Tech and AI, offering tax breaks and other incentives to build AI complexes, while often not taking community needs into consideration.
- Aware that fossil fuels and renewables by themselves likely can’t handle the astronomical energy demands posed by AI mega-data centers, Internet companies are reactivating the once moribund nuclear industry, despite intractable problems with radioactive waste disposal.
- Voices in the Global South say that AI computing (whose producers remain principally in the Global North) is evolving as a new form of extractive colonialism. Some Indigenous people say it is time to question limitless technological innovation with its heavy environmental and social costs.

As Indonesia turns COP30 into carbon market showcase, critics warn of ‘hot air’
- Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit to aggressively market its carbon credits, launching daily “Sellers Meet Buyers” sessions and seeking international commitments 6 despite unresolved integrity issues in its carbon market.
- Experts warn Indonesia’s credits risk being “hot air,” since its climate targets are rated “critically insufficient,” meaning many claimed reductions may not be real, additional or permanent — especially in forest-based projects.
- Forest and land-use credits, Indonesia’s biggest selling point, are among the riskiest, with high risks of overcrediting, leakage and nonpermanence; ongoing fires and deforestation further undermine credibility.
- Environmental groups say the carbon push distracts Indonesia from securing real climate finance, enabling wealthy nations to offset rather than cut emissions, while leaving Indonesia vulnerable to climate impacts and dependent on a fragile market.

‘Green’ energy transition leaves a dirty trail in the Philippines’ nickel belt
- Nickel mining in the southern Philippines is damaging the environment and health and livelihoods of local communities, according to a recent report from U.S.-based NGO Climate Rights International.
- The report looked at the Caraga region on the island of Mindanao, where 23 active nickel mines currently operate.
- Residents interviewed for the report cited siltation of rivers, farms and coastal areas as damage caused by nickel mines, as well as dust pollution during the dry season. They also listed human rights violations against people opposed to the mines.
- The vast majority of nickel mined in the region is exported to China.

TotalEnergies moves to restart Mozambique LNG project despite security, eco concerns
Four years after suspending operations at a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique’s Afungi Peninsula following insurgent attacks in the nearby village of Palma, French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies and its partners have decided to lift their force majeure, local media reported. The company communicated the decision to the Mozambican government on Oct. 24. […]
‘Clean energy is just one driver of mining’: Cleodie Rickard on critical minerals
- A new Global Justice Now report has found that nearly one-fifth of minerals labeled “critical” by the U.K. aren’t actually essential for the green energy transition, but are instead needed for the aerospace and weapons industries.
- Mongabay interviewed Cleodie Rickard, the policy and campaigns manager at Global Justice Now, who says the group’s findings also show the U.K. can pursue its energy transition without increasing mineral mining — if it does so in a certain way.
- Rickard says states and multinational mining companies often use the green energy transition as a pretext to ramp up critical mineral projects even though many of the minerals listed as “critical” aren’t necessary for the energy transition.
- In this interview, she says the need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is undeniable, but exactly what materials should be prioritized, how much of them and what specific industries they serve have not been given enough attention.

‘Africa can become a green leader’: Interview with Mohamed Adow of Power Shift Africa
- Although Africa contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it suffers the worst consequences of climate change and still receives only around 2% of global renewable energy investments.
- Mohamed Adow from the think tank Power Shift Africa tells Mongabay that delegates at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, must deliver a “just transition framework” that prioritizes African needs, expands access to clean energy, and strengthens green industrialization across the continent.
- Adow says he envisions an Africa that harnesses its transition minerals and renewable potential for its own prosperity — leading the global energy transition instead of powering other countries’ economies.
- In 2025, African countries experienced escalating climate disasters, including deadly floods and severe droughts, while facing cuts in U.S. aid funding.

Coal-dependent South Africa struggles to make just energy transition real
- Communities in South Africa’s coal-mining towns say there’s little sign of a clean energy transition on the ground, where they complain of persistent pollution and violence toward activists.
- A metalworkers’ union leader who sits on South Africa’s climate commission says the transition is racing forward, outpacing new jobs promised to mine workers.
- A mine operator says coal is a critical element in producing renewable energy infrastructure.

What does the just energy transition mean for Africa?
- Around 600 million Africans lack even basic access to electricity.
- The challenges this deficit poses have led to a call for a “just” energy transition that brings access to energy from renewable sources without imposing undue costs on individuals, communities and countries.
- The rising concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are largely the result of fossil fuel burning in industrialized countries, and yet countries in Africa and elsewhere in the Global South are often on the frontlines of the impacts of climate change, including unbearable heat, droughts and flooding.
- The debate about how to facilitate a “just” transition includes questions around the continued use of fossil fuels, nations’ sovereignty, and mobilizing funding to finance the necessary changes.

African summit seeks clean energy future to combat climate change impacts
- Nonstate actors have adopted the “Cotonou Declaration” at the Climate Chance Africa 2025 summit.
- The summit featured renewable energy commitments as well as a road map for integrating adaptation as a crucial step in addressing climate change.
- Benin is leading the way on climate resilience by anticipating and addressing the challenges posed by climate change.

Rise in Chinese off-grid coal plants in Indonesia belies pledge to end fossil fuel support
- Chinese president Xi Jinping has pledged to end the country’s financing of overseas coal projects — but a surge in Chinese-backed coal-fired power plants to supply electricity to nickel mining and processing undermines that pledge.
- Chinese investment has been flowing into Indonesia’s metal mining and smelting sector in a bid to supply raw materials to electric vehicle battery makers amid a transition to the zero-emission vehicles.
- By the end of the decade, about 44% of processed nickel for use in batteries and also for stainless steel will come from Indonesia.

Three tracks to rescue 1.5°C: fossil exit, forest protection, and nature’s carbon (commentary)
- Ilona Szabó de Carvalho, co-founder and president of the Igarapé Institute and of the Green Bridge Facility, argues that keeping global warming below 1.5 °C requires action on three simultaneous fronts: phasing out fossil fuels, ending deforestation, and scaling up natural carbon capture in forests and oceans.
- She contends that energy decarbonization alone is insufficient; protecting and restoring ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, and mangroves is essential for both emissions reduction and resilience, and must be backed by transparent finance and accountability.
- With COP30 approaching in Belém, her piece calls for an integrated, finance-backed plan that ties together clean-energy expansion, a time-bound zero-deforestation roadmap, and rigorous safeguards for community-led nature-based solutions.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

In Honduras, local communities miss out on benefits of large-scale renewables
- About 1.4 million Hondurans still lack access to electricity, energy demand is increasing and climate change is intensifying, while the country continues to rely on fossil fuels. Yet, in southern Honduras, large-scale renewable energy projects have sparked sharp criticism from local communities.
- Community members complain of unbearable heat, water scarcity and deforestation. They say they feel the impacts of large renewable energy projects, but not the benefits, noting that they still lack access to the electricity grid and face some of the highest electricity prices in the region.
- Community leaders who resist renewable energy projects report being threatened. Experts, activists and community members say better protection for community leaders is urgently needed.
- Despite Honduras’s need for an energy transition, the government and companies involved in these projects have failed to secure community support. Instead, locals call for a “just transition” that ensures affordable energy.

Report identifies 10 emerging tech solutions to enhance planetary health
- A recent report underlines 10 emerging technologies offering potential to accelerate climate action, restore ecosystems, and drive sustainable innovation within safe planetary boundaries. These technologies include AI-supported Earth observation, automated food waste upcycling, green concrete and more.
- Innovative AI improvements in Earth observations (EO) can better identify and track human-caused environmental impacts and offer improved early warning alerts for planetary boundary overshoot. Such systems use AI-powered analytics to synthesize satellite, drone and ground-based data for near-real-time results.
- Artificial intelligence and automation can also work in tandem to manage citywide food waste programs, ensuring that food scraps are diverted from landfills or incineration, decreasing carbon emissions and reducing waste.
- Another tech solution is green concrete which could not only reduce emissions from traditional cement production, but when incorporated into infrastructure construction, can offer a permanent storage place for captured CO2.

Critical minerals drive legalization of mining on Amazon Indigenous lands
- Brazilian lawmakers are advancing controversial bills to legalize mining on Indigenous lands, where hundreds of mining bids have already been filed, as the nation positions itself as a key supplier for the energy transition.
- The proposed expansion of mining would intensify deforestation and mercury pollution, bringing violence to Indigenous communities and threatening the Amazon, reports show.
- The move raises concerns among Indigenous organizations and experts, who warn that the bills are unconstitutional and may be taken without properly consulting traditional communities.

In Malawi, a rural community shines bright with 100% solar power milestone
- A UK-based charity has installed solar photovoltaic systems in all 9,000 households of a rural village in Malawi, Kasakula.
- The nonprofit has trained local technicians to maintain the systems — and says it retrieves damaged or retired batteries or other components for now, as no system for safely recycling these exists in Malawi.
- Raising foreign exchange to import PV systems tailored for the low-income customers that SolarAid’s model is aimed at is among the future challenges.

Potential wind slowdown threatens renewable energy and fuels heat domes
Climate change may be causing long-term global wind speeds to slow down, a shift that will likely lead to a dangerous rise in local temperatures, worsening air pollution and disruption to renewable energy systems, Mongabay writer Sean Mowbray reported. A warming atmosphere is likely weakening the forces that govern wind speeds, leading to more frequent […]
Drax pellet mill wins appeal to raise pollution limits in small Mississippi town
- Industrial forest biomass wood pellet mills now dot rural areas around the globe, with plants concentrated in the U.S. Southeast, and other major facilities found in Canada, the EU, Russia, Vietnam, Indonesia and elsewhere. The EU, Japan and South Korea burn most of the wood pellets currently being produced.
- Pellet mills have increasingly come under fire from rural communities who accuse large-scale manufacturers like the U.K.’s Drax and Enviva in the U.S. of air pollution, dust and noise violations, which harm residents’ health and quality of life. A 2023 study found that pellet mills in the U.S. Southeast release 55 hazardous pollutants.
- In a rare victory last April, the town of Gloster, Mississippi, won a major pollution permitting battle against Drax’s Amite BioEnergy pellet mill — one of the largest in the world. But at an October appeal meeting, the Mississippi Department of Environment Quality reversed itself, giving Drax permission to pollute more today than previously.
- The Drax plant has been fined more than $2.75 million since 2016 for exceeding toxic emissions limits. Drax says it has invested millions in pollution mitigation technology to prevent future pollution. A law firm representing Gloster citizens is filing a federal lawsuit alleging Drax has been violating the Clean Air Act since opening the Gloster plant in 2015.

Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
- Large-scale lithium mining may impact scarce and precious water resources and balance in Argentina’s arid ecosystems, says Clemente Flores, president of the El Angosto Indigenous community.
- Flores says Indigenous communities manage water communally and this regulates how much they can grow, how many animals they can have, and it shapes their way of life and customs.
- Companies are mining “to save the world from the impacts of climate change by using the minerals for renewable technologies,” he says in this opinion piece. “But we want to be included among those who will be saved — not sacrificed to save others.”
- This commentary is part of the Voices from the Land series, a compilation of Indigenous-led opinion pieces. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Oil and gas giant TotalEnergies found guilty of greenwashing
French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies has been found by a Paris court to have deceived consumers by overstating its climate pledges and its role as an active player in the fight against global warming. The court last week ordered TotalEnergies to remove those misleading environmental claims from its website, in a move NGOs say […]
How to clean solar panels in arid areas? Waterless systems could improve efficiency
- A recent report details a waterless solar cleaning system design developed to address the challenge of dust accumulation on solar panels in arid regions; it is one of multiple waterless cleaning systems that have come about in recent years.
- The study reported a significant 26.2% average increase in power output and reduced losses due to dust accumulation.
- The development of this waterless system design has the potential to unlock new opportunities for energy access and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa, although cost and availability questions remain.
- Waterless solar panel cleaning systems could be particularly beneficial in arid regions where water scarcity is a significant issue; this technology can help to support sustainable development and reduce the strain on local water supplies.

‘We are just waiting to die’: Mining activists targeted as South Africa delays energy transition
Environmental justice activists have spoken out against coal and iron mining in South Africa, telling a recent human rights hearing that the industry violently undermines the country’s promised energy transition. They also pointed to the continued threats, displacement and killings faced by community organizers resisting land grabs by mining companies. The fifth Human Rights Defenders […]
Plastic’s triumph was no accident. It built an economy addicted to throwaway living
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. When Saabira Chaudhuri began covering consumer goods companies for The Wall Street Journal, she expected stories about marketing and product launches. Instead, she uncovered a deeper pattern: industrial ingenuity turned liability. Her new book, Consumed: How Big Brands […]
In the heart of Bolivia, the mountain that financed an empire risks collapsing
- After nearly 500 years of mining, Cerro Rico, the Bolivian mountain whose silver financed the Spanish Empire, is experiencing increasingly frequent and severe cave-ins.
- With silver prices at decade highs, mining activity on Cerro Rico has surged in recent years.
- The collapses endanger the safety and livelihoods of communities living and working on the mountain, the majority of them Indigenous Quechua.
- Lacking both funding and alternative sites to relocate miners, efforts to preserve the mountain have been delayed and ineffective.

Environmental groups slam Amazon oil drilling approval ahead of COP30
Brazil’s environment agency, IBAMA, has approved an environmental license for state-owned oil company Petrobras to drill for oil near the mouth of the Amazon River. The license, issued Oct. 20, allows the company start drilling the offshore Morpho well in oil block FZA-M-059, about 500 kilometers (311 miles) from the river’s mouth, and 2.8 km […]
South Africa court halts natural gas power plant project, cites climate commitments
A South African court has nullified the environmental authorization for state-owned electricity utility Eskom’s proposed 3,000-megawatt gas-fired power plant. The court cited multiple reasons for its decision, including the failure to adequately consult local residents and consider the full impacts of the power plant’s entire life cycle on climate change. “This ruling shows that environmental […]
Indigenous women and the path to a just energy transition: Voices from the land (commentary)
- The implementation of the energy transition is unfolding at the expense of biodiversity and communities — particularly Indigenous women, says Galina Angarova and Daniela De León, members of the SIRGE Coalition.
- They say Indigenous women stand at the frontlines of the energy transition as defenders of their lands and waters and as visionaries shaping alternative pathways rooted in balance, reciprocity and care.
- “A just and sustainable future cannot be achieved without the full participation, leadership and consent of Indigenous women,” they write in this opinion piece.
- This commentary is part of the Voices from the Land series, a compilation of Indigenous-led opinion pieces. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Unique diving paradise threatened by mine reopening
A nickel mine in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago was shut down in June after a mining ban, but operations restarted last September after the government claimed it was compliant with environmental requirements and could be considered a “green mine.” So what does the reopening mean? The mine pollution can threaten the world’s largest population of […]
Benin puts solar power at the heart of its energy policy
- Benin’s government has reaffirmed its intention to make renewable energy the main source of the country’s power supply by 2030.
- Access to electricity in Benin remains both low and highly uneven: Around 42% of urban households are connected, with less than 13% in rural areas.
- With financial and technical support from a variety of sources, Benin previously built several solar power plants and installed dozens of mini-grids; solar power currently contributes around 15% of domestic production.
- Benin is dependent on imported power for 95% of its electricity needs, but is placing resilient renewable energy at the center of its strategy to increase and expand its domestic generating capacity.

Cameroon inaugurates controversial dam despite local dissent
- The inauguration of Cameroon’s Nachtigal dam has boosted the country’s electricity supply.
- The dam’s construction has also led to loss of livelihoods for fishers and sand miners on the Sanaga River around the dam site.
- In 2022, these workers received compensation from the dam, but as the full dimensions of their losses emerge, they say this was inadequate.

Big Oil isn’t part of the clean energy push, despite its claims, study shows
A new study that mapped the portfolios of the world’s 250 biggest oil and gas companies found their deployment of renewable energy is paltry: they’re responsible for just 1.42% of the global renewable energy capacity in operation. Despite announcing ambitious plans to embrace renewables, a mere 0.1% of the primary energy they produce comes from […]
Africa’s largest freshwater lake could be site of Kenya’s nuclear power plant
- The proposal to build a 1,000-MW nuclear power plant on Kenya’s southeastern coast has faced strong opposition from residents and environmental experts, who warn of potential harm to communities, fisheries and the environment.
- Government agencies are now holding consultations at another prospective location on the other side of the country, near Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake.
- Kenya’s energy needs today are met mostly from low-carbon sources, and the country is on track to achieve universal energy access by 2030, but authorities say nuclear power is needed to meet future development goals.
- Some experts, however, warn about the high costs, delays, and long-term environmental risks associated with nuclear power projects.

EU to invest $636m in African power projects, including clean energy
The European Union has pledged 545 million euros ($636 million) for projects focused on modernizing power grids, increasing access to renewable energy, and supporting clean energy projects in nine African countries. “The choices Africa makes today are shaping the future of the entire world,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the announcement […]
With red tape, canceled rebates, Indonesia risks missing Chinese renewables investment
- Chinese clean energy firms, including LONGi and Trina Solar, are investing in solar panel manufacturing in Indonesia as competition and policy changes squeeze their domestic market.
- Indonesia is an attractive but underdeveloped renewables market, with just 560 MW of total solar capacity installed, compared to 198 GW added in China in the first five months of 2025.
- Strict quotas set by Indonesia’s state-owned utility PLN limit rooftop solar installations, dampening investor enthusiasm despite the country’s vast potential.
- Since 2022, Chinese firms have pledged about $70 billion in Indonesian renewables, EV and battery ventures, presenting Indonesia with a rare opportunity to build a robust clean energy supply chain.

Anguish for residents as Thailand’s most polluting coal plant gets new lease of life
- Thailand has pushed back retiring several coal-fired units at the 2,400-MW Mae Moh power plant, keeping some units running until at least 2031 and refurbishing others to 2048, despite earlier closure plans.
- Mae Moh is Thailand’s biggest CO2 polluter, and also emits high levels of other air pollutants, which nearby communities have for decades blamed for respiratory and other illnesses.
- Extending the plant’s lifespan undercuts Thailand’s clean-air pledges and Paris Agreement targets as fossil fuels still dominate the power mix, while renewable growth remains slow.
- Residents are skeptical the plant will be shut as planned by 2050, and are demanding stronger mitigation, cleanup and health care as coal jobs remain a major part of the local economy.

Philippine tribes revive reforestation to defy coal mining expansion
- Indigenous residents, farmers, and church groups in the southern Philippines continue to resist a coal mine they say threatens health, livelihoods and ancestral lands.
- Since 2022, strip mining has destroyed forested slopes, polluted roads with coal dust, and caused frequent accidents from heavy truck traffic.
- Critics say accountability is elusive after San Miguel Corp., one of the country’s biggest conglomerates, sold the companies operating the mines to an undisclosed buyer, obscuring ownership.
- Tribal leaders are reviving reforestation as a form of protest, vowing to block any mining expansion into their ancestral domain.

Indonesia aims to redraw UNESCO site boundaries to allow geothermal projects
- Indonesia is proposing to redraw the boundaries of a UNESCO World Heritage rainforest, excluding two degraded areas, in order to free up geothermal potential in the region.
- Geothermal, which draws from the country’s volcanic geography, is an energy technology the government is aggressively promoting as the country moves away from fossil fuels.
- The area was declared a World Heritage Site in 2004 for its immense biodiversity: more than 10,000 plant species, 200 mammals and 580 birds, including critically endangered Sumatran orangutans, tigers, rhinos and elephants.
- The site is already on UNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger list due to deforestation, illegal logging, encroachment and road building; environmentalists warn that geothermal development risks worsening pressures on a forest ecosystem already in decline.

Religion at a crossroads in Indonesia as Islamic groups bid to operate large-scale mines
- Indonesia’s two biggest Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, are in the spotlight for a new program under which they would operate large-scale mines.
- The controversy involves a recent uproar over a nickel mine in Raja Ampat, Indonesia’s premier diving destination; public criticism mounted as it came to light that a senior cleric in Nahdlatul Ulama sat on the board of PT Gag Nikel, the company operating the mine.
- Other religious organizations, such as the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference and the Indonesian Communion of Churches, are among those to reject management of mining concessions, citing sustainability reasons.
- Mongabay spoke to religious scholars to get their take on the mining controversy.

From chalkboards to e-learning, solar boosts schooling in an Indian floodplain
On remote river islands in eastern India’s Assam state, solar power is helping children access education more reliably, reports Mongabay India’s Shailesh Shrivastava. Schools in Assam’s Brahmaputra River Valley recently introduced digital classroom infrastructure, bringing audio-visual learning to children. For some students, this shift from chalkboard-only teaching has been a game changer. “Until last year, […]
Europe’s competition over Indigenous Sámi resources: Voices from the land (commentary)
- In northern Europe, Indigenous Sámi people continue to compete with neighboring nations for the same resources and lands, says Áslat Holmberg, former president of the Saami Council, political leader and advocate for Indigenous rights.
- He argues that this is part of continual colonial control, taking shape in the form of mines, energy projects, top-down conservation efforts and politics taking more land from Sámi reindeer herders and fishers or overriding Sámi rights in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
- “Our lands are seen as a storeroom of resources, just waiting to be plundered,” Holmberg writes in this opinion piece. “We are told that we must contribute and give more of our lands for the sake of the planet. But we have already given so much. Many of our communities are stretched to their limits.”
- This commentary is part of the Voices from the Land series, a compilation of Indigenous-led opinion pieces. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Australia targets at least 62% emissions cut in the next decade
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia on Thursday set a new target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by between 62% and 70% below 2005 levels by 2035. The new target adds to Australia’s ambition of a 43% cut by the end of this decade and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, leader of the center-left […]
Satellite images reveal oil project surge in Ugandan park and wetland
New satellite analysis shows that wells and roads for a project in Uganda feeding Africa’s longest heated oil pipeline have progressed significantly within a protected area and near a critical wetland. The Tilenga oil field marks the starting point of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, currently under construction by the French multinational TotalEnergies. The […]
Rare earth rush endangers rural communities and conservation areas in Brazil
- Brazil has 23% of global reserves of rare earth minerals, second only to China, but its production remains at an early stage, accounting for only 1% of the global market.
- The race to mine and process rare earths in Brazil has raised fears among community leaders, particularly in rural settlements that are the focus of some 187 rare earth mining applications currently in process.
- In these areas, rare earth mining activities risks exacerbating land disputes and devastating preserved forests — including one in Bahia state that hosts a 600-year-old endangered Brazilwood tree.

Vian Ruma, Indonesian activist, found dead. Aged 30.
He taught mathematics in a small state school on Flores and organized the parish youth group on weekends. Numbers ordered his days; community gave them purpose. In recent years, he also helped mobilize opposition to plans to tap the island’s restless geology for power. On Sept. 5, 2025, Vian Ruma was found dead, hanging from […]
In Argentina, lithium exploration proceeds amid community disputes
- In 2023, the Argentine crude oil exporter Pan American Energy announced its plans to start exploring for lithium in Argentina’s Jujuy and Salta provinces.
- Sources told Mongabay that the company did not conduct an adequate free, prior and informed consultation (FPIC) with affected communities before beginning to explore for lithium on their ancestral land.
- They also expressed concerns about the lack of public information about the mining projects and the potential impact on the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc basin, which Indigenous communities in the region depend on for their livelihoods.
- Lithium mining here may impact two important flamingo species that inhabit the region and other key wetland bird species, biologists have said.

Death of activist critical of geothermal project raises alarm in Indonesia
- Vian Ruma, a 30-year-old opponent of a geothermal project on Flores Island, was found dead under circumstances his family and allies say point to foul play.
- His death highlights Indonesia’s long and worsening record of attacks on environmental defenders, with activists saying most violence and killings of activists in the past decade have targeted this group.
- Under President Prabowo Subianto, cases of threats and attacks on environmental human rights defenders have more than doubled in early 2025 compared to the same period last year.
- Police and companies increasingly use criminal charges to silence critics, deepening fears among civil society of shrinking space to call out environmental violations.

Maluku coconut growers cry crisis as Indonesia land-grabs feed energy transition
- Numerous villages in Indonesia’s Halmahera Island face extensive compulsory purchase actions for farming land by mining companies with extraction permits issued by the government.
- One farmer said he faced sustained pressure from local authorities to accept offers of $1.22 per square meter of land, which did not account for the recurring revenues earned from multiple coconut harvests per year.
- The South Wasile’s police chief sent an emphatic denial to Mongabay Indonesia when asked whether local police were involved in company efforts to persuade farmers to sign contracts of sale.
- Mongabay has reported this year from Halmahera on a rise in respiratory disease and high levels of mercury present in blood samples in communities living alongside Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP), the giant nickel smelting center on Halmahera.

Indonesia prioritizes gas over renewables to meet power demand surge
- Indonesia’s state electricity company PLN is betting big on natural gas as a “bridging fuel” ahead of a big buildup of renewables.
- But it is at least half again more expensive than coal, and domestic supplies are running low.
- Critics say gas is costly, existing plants are underused, and the policy risks locking Indonesia into fossil fuels while diverting funds from clean energy.
- Domestic gas supply is also declining as wells age, raising fears of shortages by the mid-2030s unless new reserves are tapped.

Leaders pitch homegrown solutions at Africa Climate Summit — and $100b to back them
- A new cooperation framework announced at the Africa Climate Summit aims to raise $100 billion from African development finance institutions and private banks for industrialization powered by renewable energy.
- For this ambition to prompt a structural shift, African and overseas capital will need to be raised without worsening debt and repayment for African governments, researchers and campaigners say.
- Summit host Ethiopia presented domestic tree planting, climate-resilient wheat, and hydropower initiatives as models for the 1,000 homegrown solutions it hopes an African Climate Innovation Compact can produce by 2030.
- Civil society, warning that climate finance for Africa remains loan-heavy, welcomed the push for African ownership and stressed that grants or similarly favorable terms for adaptation and loss-and-damage funding are needed if fairness is to match ambition.

Censured Sumatra coal plant blamed for sickening children in Indonesia’s Bengkulu
- A 2×100 megawatt coal power plant established by Chinese state-owned enterprise, Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina), incurred environmental penalties in 2023 from Indonesia’s environment ministry for dumping fly ash into a protected marine area off the city of Bengkulu in Sumatra.
- Residents of Teluk Sepang in 2019 formed a grassroots organization to advocate for clean air while holding to account PowerChina’s Indonesian affiliate, PT Tenaga Listrik Bengkulu.
- Data from a local clinic in Teluk Sepang showed a large share of young people living in the shadow of the coal plant suffer from respiratory diseases.

Waste-to-energy project could boost Brazil’s decarbonization goals
- Manaus is one of the top generators of solid waste among Brazil’s state capitals, with an average of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of garbage per resident every day. The problem affects all of Amazonas state, where use of landfills is intense, increasing the risk of soil contamination.
- Under construction, the Amazonas Waste Treatment and Processing Center (CTTR) could be one of the solutions to the city’s high waste volume. A pioneer in the state, the plant promises to convert solid waste into biomethane, known as “green gas,” for its high decarbonization potential.
- When it is fully operational — around 2031 — the CTTR will be able to produce enough biogas to supply approximately 179,000 homes, according to industry estimates.
- In addition to contributing to the pursuit of Brazil’s decarbonization goals, incorporating biomethane into Amazonas’s energy portfolio can reduce the risk of energy insecurity in smaller, remote towns that suffer from imminent supply shortages.

Indonesia’s Bajau fishers lament nickel mining’s marine pollution
For many members of the nomadic Bajau sea tribe on Indonesia’s Kabaena Island, growing up meant swimming and fishing in clear waters, just outside their homes built on stilts. However, in 2010, the water turned red, which the villagers blame on runoff from nearby nickel mining, Mongabay’s Hans Nicholas Jong reported in July. “Now, I […]
Philippine fishers struggle as LNG ‘superhighway’ cuts through biodiversity hotspot
Fishers in the Philippines’ Batangas Bay are struggling to make ends meet and feed their families as nearby coastal areas are developed into a natural gas import hub, Mongabay contributor Nick Aspinwall reported in July. Families that have been fishing in Batangas Bay for years have been asked by local officials to leave to make […]
Deep-sea mining is a false solution to our challenges (commentary)
- A new op-ed argues that the case for deep-sea mining is weak and also that the facts used by its proponents don’t add up, but rather cloud their judgment.
- The divergence between scientific understanding of likely ecological harms and prevailing narratives — like the touted economic benefits, which could actually be costs — came into sharp focus at the recent annual meeting of the International Seabed Authority, which governs the development of this industry.
- “Given the high costs and severe environmental risks, why then pursue deep-sea mining? This activity threatens unique deep-sea ecosystems and could irrevocably alter ocean health, impacting life on land,” the author writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Green hydrogen development threatens wildlife in Chile
- Chile aims to be a global leader in green hydrogen production by 2030, with major exports going to Europe and Asia.
- But researchers warn that the required infrastructure and production process could threaten rare and endemic species in Chile’s fragile ecosystems, including the Magellanic Steppe and the Atacama Desert.
- In addition, experts say, it would take vast amounts of space and water, which Chile plans to take from the ocean, creating an energetically inefficient and potentially unprofitable model while threatening the wildlife.

Air quality study of East Java waste-to-energy plant sparks dispute, health warnings
- Indonesia’s largest environmental group reported that air quality around Surabaya’s Benowo waste-to-energy plant frequently exceeded World Health Organization safety limits, with pollution spreading into residential areas, markets, schools and other public spaces.
- Officials and the plant’s operator disputed the findings, maintaining that government-approved monitoring shows no breaches of pollution thresholds, while refusing to release the data.
- Environmental health experts warned that fine and coarse particles from waste burning can cause respiratory illness, heart disease and cancer, urging stricter standards, better waste separation and a shift toward community-based zero-waste systems.

Dang Dinh Bach: He fought for clean air. Now he breathes through bars.
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. It wasn’t the first time the Vietnamese authorities had accused someone of tax evasion. But few such cases have ended in a five-year prison sentence. Fewer still have involved a man whose life was defined by public service: […]
Nepal’s hydropower developers watch closely as court nears key verdict
- Nepal’s private hydropower developers await the full text of a Supreme Court verdict that will decide the fate of infrastructure, such as dams and transmission lines, inside the nation’s natural protected areas.
- The court’s initial summary order, issued in January, scrapped a 2024 law that had permitted such projects. It found the law unconstitutional, citing violations of the right to a clean environment and principles of intergenerational equity.
- Hydropower producers, who contribute to about 63% of Nepal’s 2,991 MW installed capacity, argue the verdict stalls hundreds of projects worth 25,000 MW and threatens existing plants by blocking crucial transmission lines.

A sales-pitch pivot brings deep-sea mining closer to reality
Early on, Canada-based The Metals Company cast the rocks it seeks to mine from the deep seafloor as a crucial resource for electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies, positioning them as a solution to the accelerating climate crisis. However, in 2024, another message overtook the first in TMC’s communications, according to an analysis by […]
Batang coal plant’s seawater permit imperils marine life, fishing communities
- The Batang coal-fired power plant in Central Java, now legally permitted to use vast amounts of seawater for cooling, has raised alarms among experts over its impact on marine ecosystems and traditional fisheries.
- Since operations began, the plant has displaced fishing communities, polluted coastal waters with heated discharge and caused up to a 50% decline in shrimp catches, particularly affecting traditional fishers in Roban Barat.
- Community resistance was met with intimidation and arrests, while some residents accepted compensation from the operator, PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia, further dividing the local population.
- Critics, including Greenpeace and KIARA, say the project reflects Indonesia’s coal-centered energy policy, undermining both environmental justice and climate goals, as the country continues to expand fossil fuel use despite international pressure to shift toward renewables.

Oil ‘does not guarantee stability’: Colombia’s environment minister on energy transition
- Colombia, a major oil-producing country that banned new oil and gas projects, has a goal to progressively move away from oil and gas while strengthening local renewable energy and storage capacity.
- Lena Yanina Estrada, the new environment minister and first Indigenous person to hold the position, argues that it’s a model that helps bring long-term stability for the country and its ecosystems in a turbulent world.
- The current global and energy landscape is full of twists and turns, with countries diving into or pulling out of fossil fuel commitments in reaction to inflation, wars, politics, energy sovereignty and more.
- Mongabay interviewed Minister Estrada to get her take on fossil fuels, renewable energy, infrastructure and how Indigenous rights fit in.

Mounting corporate pressure on Honduras threatens community rights
- New data on foreign arbitration claims in Honduras reveal that the lawsuits filed by corporations against the country now total $19.4 billion in legal claims, equivalent to roughly 53% of Honduras’ GDP in 2024.
- The lawsuits, many of which are tied to controversial investments made after the 2009 coup, undermine government efforts to implement reforms that could benefit human rights and the environment.
- Seven claims amounting to more than $1.6 billion are from the electricity sector alone, including from renewable energy.

Nickel boom on an Indonesian island brings toxic seas, lost incomes, report says
- Nickel mining on Indonesia’s Kabaena Island has polluted the sea, degraded forests and disrupted the lives of Indigenous Bajau fishers and farmers, who have reported severe drops in income, fish catches and seaweed quality.
- The mining has harmed biodiversity, threatening leatherback turtle nesting sites and the island’s unique long-tailed macaques, while also causing health issues among locals, including skin and respiratory problems, according to a report by NGOs.
- Affected communities report land seizures without proper consultation or compensation, limited public participation, and criminalization of protests, all in violation of Indigenous rights and national laws.
- The report ties the mining firms to political elites and global EV supply chains, including alleged links to Tesla and Ford, and calls for mining permit audits, stronger protections for affected communities and full accountability from companies.

Nearly three-quarters of solar and wind projects are being built in China
China is rapidly scaling up its solar and wind energy infrastructure, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all utility-scale projects currently under construction worldwide, according to a new report from the Global Energy Monitor (GEM). With 510 gigawatts (GW) already under construction and a total pipeline of over 1.3 terawatts (TW), China is consolidating its position […]
Locals fear Chile’s new port project for green energy will disrupt ecosystems
- A new private port for public use near Punta Arenas, a city in southern Chile’s Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic Region, has been approved for multipurpose services, such as the development of green hydrogen and salmon industries.
- The region has recently attracted a lot of attention due to its enormous green energy potential.
- The company concerned told Mongabay that this port will reduce the need for developers of green hydrogen and other projects in the region to build their own private ports as there is currently a limited capacity.
- Environmental organizations and local residents fear the port’s construction and operations will impact marine ecosystems and boost industries that will likely cause greater environmental impacts, such as contamination from salmon farms.

Energy transition boom drives rise in lawsuits against alleged rights abuses
A new analysis has found that lawsuits against transition mineral mining firms and renewable energy companies are increasing worldwide. The NGO Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) in its new report published July 1 notes that since 2009, its transition litigation tracking tool has documented 95 legal cases filed against companies linked to the […]
Indonesian civil society urges probe after payout for mine recovery that never happened
- The former head of the East Kalimantan provincial mining agency is facing corruption charges, after he allegedly disbursed a guarantee payment used for environmental restoration to a company in East Kalimantan province.
- Muhammad Muhdar, an environmental lawyer at Mulawarman University in Samarinda, the provincial capital, told Mongabay that gaps in land rehabilitation of closed mining pits are so extensive that there’s potential for further unlawful activity to come to light.
- Data from the Mining Advocacy Network, a civil society organization known as Jatam, showed more than 1,700 former coal mine sites in East Kalimantan province, and that around 39 people had died in the excavations, most of them children.

Indonesia tests shows blood mercury rising at ground zero of world energy transition
- Pathology results from a sample size of 46 people living near Indonesia’s Weda Bay Industrial Estate (IWIP) showed a large share in the community around the nickel-processing center had unsafe levels of arsenic and mercury in blood samples.
- The precise cause of these elevated levels of a heavy metal is difficult to determine, but researchers suspect the health effects could be due to IWIP’s coal-fired power sources, pollution from the smelting process, and other environmental factors, such as accumulation in the food chain.
- Globally, research has shown links between heavy metals in the blood of people living alongside mining operations and elevated risks of chronic health conditions, as well as impairment of cognitive development in children.

In Latin America, energy transition stirs a rise in human rights lawsuits
- A new report from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) finds that more than half of the 95 energy transition-related lawsuits recorded globally since 2009 took place in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Almost half of all cases were filed by Indigenous peoples; 70% of cases globally and 76% of those filed in Latin America and the Caribbean concerned mining for transition minerals.
- The report urges governments, companies and investors to conduct robust human and environmental due diligence across the entire renewable energy value chain and to adopt a human rights-centered approach throughout project life cycles.

Catholic bishops from Global South call for ambitious climate action ahead of COP30
Catholic bishops representing more than 800 million people across the Global South, for the first time in history, issued a joint statement demanding an “ambitious implementation” of the Paris Agreement. “Ten years since the publication of Laudato Si’ and the signing of the Paris Agreement, the countries of the world have not responded with the […]
Private financing for Argentina’s lithium is anything but green, critics say
- Argentina is trying to position itself as a global hub for clean energy, attracting private investment in lithium mining while marketing new battery factories in the region.
- The World Bank has framed some of the lithium projects it backs as “climate action” that will help advance the clean energy transition.
- But critics say lithium mining is hurting local and Indigenous communities and depleting freshwater resources.
- The race to buy up private land for lithium mining has also allowed an influx of international corporations that may contribute to increased carbon emissions rather than help lower them, critics point out.

Banks bet big on fossil fuels, boosting financing in 2024, report finds
- Bank financing for the fossil fuel sector rose by $162.5 billion in 2024, more than 20% compared to 2023, according to a Rainforest Action Network report.
- Fossil fuel-related financing declined in 2022 and 2023, but in 2024 almost 70% of the 65 banks analyzed increased their funding for companies involved in fossil fuels.
- Experts say the findings demonstrate the limits of voluntary climate-related commitments by the banking industry, with many institutions backsliding on their promises to decarbonize their portfolios.
- They also highlight the importance of government regulation and civic action to address ongoing financial support for fossil fuel infrastructure and expansion.

Sweden needs a rights of nature legal framework (commentary)
- On July 1, the reassessment of Sweden’s hydropower plants will resume under the framework of its national plan.
- This is necessary, a new op-ed argues, because the expansion of hydropower has led to sharply reduced salmon populations, and eels are on the verge of extinction. These species are without rights, yet they have a natural right to exist.
- “Some might object that a river or an eel cannot speak in a courtroom. But there are also humans who lack that ability. In such cases, a legal guardian is appointed. In the same way, nature can be given representatives to act on its behalf in court,” the author writes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Nigeria’s proposed ban on solar panel imports raises concerns
Nigeria recently proposed a ban on importing solar panels to boost local manufacturing, but some climate and renewable energy experts worry this move may impede the country’s transition to cleaner energy sources. In announcing the proposed ban on March 26, Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology Uche Nnaji said the country has sufficient capacity to […]
Bitcoin boom comes with huge intensifying environmental footprint
- Bitcoin is often portrayed by promoters as existing in a separate cyber universe, distinct from the biological world. This view is far from reality, say critics, who point to bitcoin’s serious and escalating environmental impacts, with its global spread also raising environmental justice concerns.
- Bitcoin mining demands huge amounts of computing power and is an energy hog. It monopolizes entire data centers that are currently multiplying globally. Most of the energy needed to mint bitcoin comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which produces significant carbon emissions, worsening climate destabilization.
- Bitcoin data centers need huge amounts of water for cooling. The semiconductors required for mining are made in a process using toxic PFAS (forever chemicals). Bitcoin equipment and processing chips at the end of life also add to global e-waste. Despite these harms, bitcoin is poised for explosive growth
- Prominent influencers, including U.S. President Donald Trump, cheerlead loudly for bitcoin. Trump has said that “America will become the world’s undisputed bitcoin mining powerhouse.” His son, Eric Trump, has debuted American Bitcoin, a bitcoin mining firm. Neither Trump has addressed bitcoin’s global environmental costs.

Report exposes safety complaints preceding fatal Perenco explosion in Gabon
- On March 20, 2024, six people lost their lives on the Becuna offshore oil platform following an explosion.
- According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, employees had previously raised concerns about security issues on the platform that were allegedly ignored by Perenco’s Paris headquarters.
- Since the explosion, the only compensation that has been paid out is to a French employee’s family, who received $10 million.

Indonesian utility PLN ‘kneecaps renewables’ with embrace of fossil fuels
- Indonesia’s state-owned power utility, PLN, plans to expand fossil fuel generation by more than 20% by the mid-2030s, prioritizing gas and coal plants while delaying large-scale renewable rollouts until the early 2030s.
- PLN’s latest supply blueprint signals a fossil-fuel-heavy strategy, with strict rooftop solar caps, no mention of early coal plant retirements, and ambitious plans for gas expansion despite financing challenges.
- The utility aims to add 69.5 GW of new capacity over the next decade, more than 60% of which will come from renewables, but faces skepticism after consistently underdelivering on past clean energy promises.
- Analysts warn PLN’s plan risks stalling Indonesia’s energy transition, as fossil fuel demand rises and regulatory barriers slow renewables despite their falling costs and investor interest.

New environmental licensing will build a power plant in the Cerrado and demolish a school
- A new natural thermal power plant is planned near Brasília, Brazil’s capital, set to be built on the site of a rural school and causing the loss of nearly 32 hectares (79 acres) of native Cerrado vegetation.
- The project, enabled by a fast-tracked environmental licensing process, has sparked protests from local families concerned about displacement, pollution and threats to children’s education and health.
- The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and Termo Norte will present the project and the environmental studies of the plant in a public hearing on June 17.

No respite for Indonesia’s Raja Ampat as nickel companies sue to revive mines
- Three companies are suing the Indonesian government to be allowed to mine for nickel in the Raja Ampat archipelago, a marine biodiversity hotspot, Greenpeace has revealed.
- The finding comes after the government’s recent revocation of four other mining permits in the area, following a public outcry over environmental damage and potential zoning violations.
- At the same time, the government is also encouraging the development of a nickel processing plant nearby, raising concerns this could fuel pressure to reopen canceled mines to supply the smelter.
- Greenpeace has called for a total mining ban across Raja Ampat and for an end to the smelter project to ensure the conservation of the archipelago’s unique ecosystems and biodiversity.

World Bank to finance controversial DRC hydropower project, concerns remain
The World Bank recently approved an initial $250 million in financing for the controversial Inga 3 mega dam project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a move that worries civil society organizations. Inga 3 has long been planned as part of the Grand Inga hydropower project, a series of dams at Inga Falls on the […]
Indonesia halts most nickel mining in Raja Ampat, but allows one controversial permit
- Indonesia has revoked four out of five nickel mining permits in Raja Ampat after public pressure and findings of environmental damage in the ecologically sensitive archipelago, home to some of the world’s richest marine biodiversity.
- However, the government retained the permit for PT Gag Nikel, citing its location outside a UNESCO-designated geopark, lack of visible pollution, ongoing land rehabilitation, and the high economic value of its nickel deposits.
- Environmental groups have criticized the decision, pointing to legal bans on mining on small islands and warning of threats to marine life such as manta rays and coral reefs from barge traffic and industrial activity.
- The case reflects broader concerns about Indonesia’s nickel rush, with nearly 200 mining concessions on small islands nationwide, raising alarms over environmental destruction and the prioritization of industry over legal and ecological safeguards.

EU appetite for EVs drives new wave of deforestation in tropical forests
- The European Union’s demand for electric vehicles may lead to the deforestation of 118,000 hectares (291,584 acres) in critical minerals-supplying countries, according to a new report.
- Brazil, which accounts for large reserves of nickel, graphite, rare earths, lithium and niobium, would be one of the most affected countries.
- Despite the mining project’s socioenvironmental impacts, the Brazilian federal government has backed companies with financing and political support.
- Experts warn that the new minerals rush increases pressure on Indigenous communities already suffering from mining companies’ violations.

Strategic planning for development in the Pan Amazon
- The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was conceived to broaden Environmental Impacts Assessments and consider long-term, indirect and cumulative impacts, as well as alternative development scenarios.
- In the early 2000s, these SEAs generated a great deal of interest and were applied to several high-profile projects in the Amazon.
- Beyond looking at impacts, they evaluated impacts on forests, the expansion of secondary roads, potential real estate speculation, agriculture and deforestation and how they would affect biodiversity and livelihoods.

Indonesia new capital yet to spark electricity for low-income neighbors on Borneo
- In a district that holds Indonesia’s biggest coal reserves and sits near the new national capital, the country’s largest construction site, a large share of households in Paser district remain without an electricity connection.
- Data published by Indonesia’s statistics agency showed 10% of Paser district had yet to receive a connection to the grid.
- Households without electricity told Mongabay Indonesia that the lack of basic infrastructure provided by the state restricted economy activity and cultivated security fears at night.

Carbon capture projects promise a climate fix — and a fossil fuel lifeline
- Governments across Southeast Asia are looking at carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as a way to meet climate targets.
- Projects have been proposed in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, with Japanese companies involved in all three countries.
- Critics say CCS costs too much to be commercially viable, underperforms at capturing carbon, and serves as a diversion from actually reducing emissions.

New maps reveal Earth’s largest land mammal migration
Researchers have released new maps documenting the “Great Nile Migration,” the Earth’s largest-known land mammal migration across South Sudan and Ethiopia. The maps chart the seasonal movements of two antelope species, the white-eared kob (Kobus kob leucotis) and the tiang (Damaliscus lunatus tiang). Every year, around 5 million white-eared kob and 400,000 tiang migrate across […]
Police in Indonesia’s Halmahera Island charge 11 farmers in latest nickel flashpoint
- Officers with North Maluku province police arrested 27 people from the coastal village of Maba Sangaji in late May, and later charged 11 of the detained men with weapons and public order offenses.
- A lawyer for the 11 facing prosecution said the bladed instruments seized from them were farming tools, and did not reflect any criminal intent in demonstrating against a mining company.
- The villagers accuse nickel-mining company PT Position of quarrying their customary forest, causing damage to local crops and pollution of a river flowing through the area.
- Maba Sangaji is around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Weda Bay Industrial Estate, a vast minerals processing site established in 2018 by China mining conglomerates Huayou, Tsingshan and Zhenshi.

Mining companies use legal loopholes to move forward without environmental licensing off the Brazilian coast
- Applications for deep-sea mining permits in Brazil have soared in recent years: of the 950 requests filed since 1967, nearly half were submitted between 2020 and 2024.
- Demand for key minerals used in the clean energy transition, as well as geopolitical uncertainties, are driving the race to the seabed.
- Loopholes in Brazilian legislation are allowing mining companies to work without environmental licensing, a situation made worse by the lack of specific rules for deep-sea mining.
- Researchers warn that the lack of environmental impact studies could have widespread impacts on marine ecosystems, especially on coral reef biodiversity.

Environmental defenders targeted in 3 out of 4 human rights attacks: Report
More than 6,400 attacks against human rights defenders were reported between 2015 to 2024, according to a new report from nonprofit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). “That’s close to two attacks every day over the past 10 years against defenders who are raising concerns about business-related risks and harms,” said Christen Dobson, co-head […]
Community-based biofuels offer ‘sensible’ alternative to palm oil for Indonesia, analysis shows
- Indonesia’s current biofuel strategy relies heavily on expanding oil palm plantations to meet its B40 and upcoming B50 biodiesel mandates, which could cause up to $4.72 billion in environmental and social damage.
- A proposed alternative scenario by the NGO Madani Berkelanjutan calls for boosting yields from existing plantations and promoting community-based biofuel production using diverse feedstocks like used cooking oil and non-palm crops.
- This alternative model avoids deforestation and social conflict, supports rural economies, and could generate a higher net economic benefit of $37.1 billion, compared to $31.36 billion under the business-as-usual scenario.
- Researchers warn the country is nearing its ecological cap for oil palm plantations, urging a shift to intensification and diversification to prevent irreversible environmental harm.

Brazil bets on macaúba palm to make renewable diesel and aviation biofuel
- Macaúba, a palm tree found across the Americas, is tipped as a new biofuel feedstock to decarbonize transport and aviation. The macaúba palm produces an oil when highly refined that can be made into renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
- Bolstered by hype and billions of dollars of investment, companies are planning to plant hundreds of thousands of hectares on reportedly degraded land across Brazil. Firms are also investing in major refining facilities. This macaúba gold rush was triggered by major financial incentives from the Brazilian government.
- Macaúba’s potential green attributes are similar to jatropha, a once promising biofuel feedstock that bombed a decade ago. Macaúba is widespread but currently undomesticated. Whether macaúba plantations can achieve the yield and scale needed to help satisfy the world’s sustainable energy needs remains unknown.
- Industry proponents state that it can be produced sustainably with no land-use change or deforestation. But other analysts say that very much depends on how the coming boom, in Brazil and elsewhere, pans out.

As Indonesia phases out coal, what happens to people & environments left behind?
- An analysis by the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) finds that the country’s energy transition plans do not address the remaining impacts of coal plants such as pollution, degraded ecosystems and lost livelihoods.
- This raises a critical question about what happens to the communities and environments left behind as the country plans to retire its coal-fired power plants to tackle climate change.
- In Cirebon, West Java province, fishers and farmers had to change professions when their land was used for a coal plant; now, some want to return to their former work, but their lands and sea are polluted and degraded from years of coal plant operations, and traditional livelihoods are no longer viable.
- ICEL program deputy director Grita Anindarini said Indonesia could benefit from drawing examples from other countries or jurisdictions whose transitions are designed to remedy harm, with land redistribution, economic diversification and Indigenous rights being central to their plans.

Soldiers raid village as tensions flare over DRC’s Kamoa mine expansion
- In late April, security forces fired live ammunition to disperse protesters near a mine in the DRC province of Lualaba.
- The protesters were demanding compensation from the mine’s owner, Kamoa, as part of a stalled resettlement process.
- The company says the delay is because the number of people claiming to have been displaced by its operations has ballooned.

Brazil’s offshore wind farms could sacrifice small-scale fishing in Ceará
- In Brazil, the expansion of coastal wind energy has already disrupted traditional communities’ way of life; now, the concern is that these impacts will be repeated at sea, after a bill regulating offshore wind energy was signed into law in January.
- In the state of Ceará, 26 projects overlap with small fishing zones used by hundreds of traditional communities, including maroon, Indigenous, fisher and extractivist groups that have had a direct relationship with the sea for generations.
- The northeast region seeks to expand offshore wind energy, as it is vital to the production of green hydrogen aimed for European markets.

Flawed energy road map may block Indonesia’s coal exit, critics warn
- Indonesia’s first energy transition road map has been criticized for prioritizing financial considerations over emissions cuts, potentially stalling efforts to retire its coal fleet in favor of renewables.
- The road map’s scoring method gives excessive weight to funding availability and economic impact, while undervaluing emissions, effectively blocking the early retirement of many high-emission plants, critics say.
- The road map also lacks a binding retirement timeline and a specific list of coal plants targeted for closure, despite a pledge to phase out coal by 2040, delaying peak emissions in the power sector until 2037 — seven years later than international guidelines.
- Critics warn that the roadmap’s reliance on “false solutions” like carbon capture and cofiring with alternative fuels could prolong coal’s lifespan, while failing to address key social and economic impacts needed for a fair transition away from coal.

As renewable diesel surges, sustainability claims are deeply questioned
- Renewable diesel (RD), dubbed HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) by producers, is hailed by its supporters as a climate-friendly alternative to carbon-intensive fossil diesel. RD is a complex biofuel often made in retooled oil refineries from feedstocks including waste cooking oils, but also problematic animal fats and soy and palm oil.
- Renewable diesel substitutes easily for fossil diesel, so is touted as a climate-friendly transition fuel. Its use, mostly in vehicles, grew slowly in the past. Now, thanks largely to government-offered green subsidies, production is surging as firms widely expand uses to marine shipping, power plants, heating oil, and data center backup fuel.
- But critics are skeptical about industry claims of RD life-cycle greenhouse gas emission cuts of up to 95% over fossil fuel-derived diesel. They warn RD carbon releases will surge if renewable diesel sourcing is scaled up, triggering tropical deforestation as producers convert forests to energy crops, such as oil palm and soy.
- As the renewable diesel industry expands beyond Europe and the U.S., analysts warn it will be a false climate solution unworkable at scale, so production and use should be constrained. Independent monitoring is also needed to track feedstock supply chains to assure crops don’t have high carbon intensities or cause deforestation.

Report urges stricter mining standards to manage climate and social impacts
- A new report from the Mining Observatory finds that key mining states in Brazil are highly exposed to climate risks, water insecurity and environmental degradation.
- Mining for transition minerals can in some cases exacerbate the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and local communities in the states of Pará, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Bahia.
- Researchers told Mongabay that without better socioenvironmental safeguards, the expansion of transition minerals mining represents a “major” threat to these communities’ way of life and the preservation of ecosystems.
- The report urged governments and companies to implement stronger policy frameworks, climate adaptation strategies, robust oversight and better mechanisms to involve rights-holders in key decisions.

Indonesia’s gas bet poses risks for economy, health and climate
- Indonesia’s plan to nearly double the electricity it generates from natural gas by 2040 risks locking the country into fossil fuel dependency, undermining its net-zero emissions targets, a new report says.
- Building out gas infrastructure could cost the state up to $57 billion in losses by 2040 and threaten 6.7 million jobs, while investing in community-managed renewables could generate up to $159 billion and 96 million jobs, it says.
- Gas plants pose significant health risks from air pollution and could cost the national health insurance system up to $103 billion, while threatening biodiversity in coastal areas and sensitive ecosystems.
- The report also warns that Indonesia risks becoming dependent on Japan for gas technology, locking it into a long-term fossil fuel trap that benefits Japan economically while shifting the environmental burden to Indonesia.

Mozambique announces petrochemical city on sensitive Inhambane seascape
In April this year, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo announced the launch of a national petrochemical city project in Mavanza village in Vilankulo district of Inhambane province. The coastline of Inhambane province, or the Inhambane seascape, is a globally important area that conservation groups have previously urged the government of Mozambique to protect for its threatened […]
Protected parks in peril as Republic of Congo ramps up oil drilling
- The Republic of Congo plans to nearly double its oil production over the next three years, including drilling in protected areas like Conkouati-Douli National Park, sparking outrage from environmental activists and civil society groups.
- This expansion directly contradicts the country’s climate commitments made at the 2023 U.N. climate conference and its stated goals of preserving biodiversity.
- Major international oil companies — including TotalEnergies, Perenco, and Chinese firms — are supporting this fossil fuel push despite past pollution scandals and a lack of public environmental impact assessments.
- Critics also warn of systemic corruption and resource mismanagement, questioning whether the projected revenues will benefit the public as fuel shortages and extreme climate impacts continue to hit the country.

Wood pellet maker Drax denied pollution permit after small town Mississippi outcry
- Nearly 30 wood pellet mills operate in the southeastern U.S., with more planned. Environmental advocates have long opposed biomass for energy schemes, noting that the burning of wood pellets is a poor replacement for coal because it releases major carbon emissions, while also causing deforestation and biodiversity harm.
- But those arguments have barely moved the dial when it comes to regulating the industry or banning its lucrative green subsidies, so activist wins have been few. But the angry protests of southeastern U.S. citizens — many of them poor and Black —in rural areas where pellet mills are located have raised another big issue: pollution.
- A case in point is Drax’s Amite County plant located in Gloster, Mississippi. Drax is one of the biggest forest biomass producers in the world, but that hasn’t stopped Gloster’s citizens from opposing the company for its impacts on health and quality of life, like toxic air pollution, excessive noise and truck traffic.
- Drax has been fined twice, totaling more than $2.7 million for its pollution, with Gloster citizens recently winning over the state of Mississippi, which for now is refusing to give Drax a permit to legally pollute even more. Pollution is bad near other wood pellet plants, and forest advocates are now allying with irate citizens.

Landslide deaths again highlight safety failures in Indonesia’s nickel industry
- A deadly landslide on March 22 at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) buried four workers under nickel mine waste, reigniting scrutiny over hazardous tailings management in the country’s booming nickel sector.
- Activists blame a tailings dam failure for triggering the collapse, pointing to recent flooding and satellite evidence of structural breaches, though IMIP officials blamed heavy rainfall.
- The incident highlights ongoing safety and environmental risks tied to high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) technology, which generates large volumes of toxic waste, especially in disaster-prone areas like Sulawesi.
- With at least 40 worker deaths at IMIP since 2015, labor and environmental groups are demanding transparent investigations and stronger oversight as Indonesia’s nickel output plays a growing role in global EV supply chains.

The Metals Company applied to the U.S. for a deep-sea mining license
- The Metals Company (TMC) has submitted its first application to commercially exploit seabed minerals in international waters, along with applications for two exploration licenses, under the U.S. regulatory authority.
- The contentious move follows a recent executive order from the Trump administration that directed the U.S. government to fast-track deep-sea mining in an effort to secure supplies of critical minerals for the U.S.
- Both TMC and the U.S. have faced international pushback over these plans, with both the U.N.-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) and China criticizing them as potentially violating international law because only the ISA has the authority to permit mining in international waters.
- While the U.S. regulator and TMC say they will manage environmental risks, critics say deep-sea mining could cause significant and potentially irreversible damage to marine ecosystems.

How did Finland lead the pursuit of a circular economy? Mongabay podcast explores
As the first nation to develop a circular economy road map in 2016, Finland has had a head start in trying to develop an economy that’s based on reusing and regenerating materials and products. A lot can be learned from Finland’s experience so far, including challenges and gaps, Mongabay’s Mike DiGirolamo found in an episode of […]
EV supply chain & transport need redesign, Mongabay podcast shows
Reducing transportation’s carbon footprint is not as easy as replacing internal combustion engine (ICE) cars with electric vehicles (EVs). Producing EVs and disposing their components have environmental and human rights impacts, which also need to be carefully considered and mitigated, Mongabay’s Mike DiGirolamo found in an episode of Mongabay Explores podcast in November. In this […]
Indonesia defies global coal retreat with captive plant boom
- Indonesia added 1.9 gigawatts of new coal capacity in 2024, the third-highest globally, mainly to power metal smelters supporting the electric vehicle industry — despite global efforts to phase out coal.
- Captive coal plants built for industry have tripled in capacity since 2019, exploiting a loophole in Indonesia’s coal moratorium and undermining its climate pledges under the Paris Agreement and Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).
- Indonesia now has the fifth-largest coal fleet in the world and plans to expand by another 26.7 GW by 2030, with serious concerns about economic viability, environmental damage, and public health in regions like Sulawesi and North Maluku.
- Government-backed alternatives like biomass cofiring and carbon capture are criticized as costly and ineffective, while experts urge Indonesia to shift meaningfully toward renewables to align with global energy and climate trends.

Church pressure spurs scrutiny of Indonesian geothermal projects
- In early April, the governor of Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province said his administration would review all geothermal development on Flores Island.
- The statement followed a campaign by the Catholic Church, led by the Archdiocese of Ende, which advocated for local residents concerned about environmental damage.
- Indonesia has the world’s largest potential for geothermal energy, and use of the technology has grown in recent years as the country seeks to expand renewables to meet its international climate commitments.
- The Vatican assumed a leadership role on climate change under the late Pope Francis, who died over Easter at the age of 88.

Sheinbaum’s energy agenda under fire as Mexican activists slam LNG megaproject
- A controversial project bringing U.S. liquefied natural gas through the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora to the Gulf of California continues to face strong resistance from environmental activists.
- Critics of the Saguaro energy project say the pipeline, associated infrastructure and increased industrialization will harm the biodiversity of the gulf, which hosts 85% of Mexico’s marine mammal species and one-third of the world’s dolphin and whale species.
- Energy analysts say the pipeline will increase Mexico’s dependence on U.S. fossil fuels and further delay energy transition goals, despite President Claudia Sheinbaum’s electoral promises to boost investments in clean energy.
- Environmentalists say they’re worried about the project’s greenhouse gas emissions, with methane being especially problematic due to its high global warming potential.

As big money wavers, Southeast Asia’s green startups fight to stay powered
- Southeast Asia’s clean-energy startups like Vietnam’s SmartSolar and Indonesia’s Swap Energi are expanding but face growing challenges due to waning government support and shifting global investment trends.
- U.S. and regional funding cuts, along with economic uncertainty and geopolitical shifts, are making it harder for renewable startups to secure long-term financing and scale their operations.
- Despite these headwinds, founders say local demand remains strong, and backing from European development agencies is helping maintain momentum — though the path to profitability is getting narrower.

‘Heart of Borneo’ dams raze Indigenous forests for Indonesia green energy drive
- A joint venture between Indonesia and state-owned Malaysia companies is constructing a network of dams in the Bulungan and Malinau districts of North Kalimantan, a sparsely populated Bornean province bordering the Malaysian state of Sarawak.
- The dams will generate 9,000 megawatts to power industry in the under-construction Kalimantan Industrial Park Indonesia in Bulungan district, a site the government hopes will be a global hub of solar panel and battery manufacture.
- One community of around 28 families has already been relocated as dam contractors prepare to submerge more villages and tunneling continues.

Heat wave scorches parts of India with record temperatures
Several cities across India saw temperatures top 40° Celsius, or 104° Fahrenheit, this past week, with some areas exceeding 46°C (114.8°F). Delhi experienced a heat wave for three consecutive days, recording its warmest April night in three years, with temperatures 5-6°C (9-10.8°F) above normal for the period. Many areas in the country’s northwest remain on […]
Lithium Triangle mining may strain water sources more than expected, study says
- Measuring water availability for lithium extraction can still be unpredictable, especially in the high-altitude Lithium Triangle in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.
- Current models can overestimate how much water is available, potentially exacerbating scarcity for local communities, according to a new study in Communications Earth and Environment.
- The study suggests using a more accurate model as well as improving transparency and resources for gathering observational data where lithium is being extracted.

Smallholder agriculture blossoming with the use of renewables in Africa
- With agriculture employing more than 60% of Africa’s workforce, experts emphasize boosting energy access as a critical input to enhancing productivity and food security.
- The World Resources Institute (WRI) has collaborated with local partners and policymakers to support the integration of clean energy in the smallholder agriculture sector.
- The Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) aims to support efforts to integrate renewable energy into agricultural value chains.
- Innovative irrigation systems with solar panels are now becoming important job creators in Africa, yet the capital investment for ordinary farmers to acquire the technology is still high.

Netherlands’ largest forest biomass plant canceled, forest advocates elated
- Vattenfall, the Netherlands’ third-largest energy producer, has announced it is abandoning plans to build the country’s largest wood pellet burning power plant.
- Forest advocates, who launched a campaign to derail Vattenfall’s plans in 2019, declared victory. They note that burning wood pellets to make energy produces more carbon emissions per unit of energy than coal, despite industry claims that the technology is carbon neutral.
- Increasing scientific evidence shows that burning forest biomass for energy is a false climate solution that increases deforestation and biodiversity loss, while releasing significant carbon emissions at the smokestack — worsening climate change.
- In a recent pivot, EU officials now seem more willing to admit the error of past carbon neutrality claims for wood pellet burning power plants, though they now say those emissions can be eliminated by installing Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BCCS) at the facilities — an untested, unready technology, scientists say.

Housing affordability through sustainability? Mongabay podcast explores
Countries all over the world face huge deficits in affordable housing today. But pursuing a circular economy, or the practice of making a good’s life cycle less resource-intensive, can pave the way for less expensive and longer-lasting houses, Mongabay’s Mike DiGirolamo found in an episode of the Mongabay Explores podcast published last December. In the episode, DiGirolamo talks […]
Indonesia’s coal gasification reboot faces backlash over economic, environmental risks
- Indonesia is reviving plans to develop coal gasification plants to produce hydrogen and dimethyl ether (DME), aiming to reduce reliance on imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), with funding from the newly launched Danantara sovereign wealth fund.
- Experts warn that coal gasification is economically unviable, with previous plans falling through due to high costs, and that the government may need to provide large subsidies to make the initiative financially feasible.
- Environmental concerns include high carbon emissions from DME production, increased air pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity threats, contradicting Indonesia’s energy transition commitments.
- Critics argue that using state funds for coal gasification poses financial risks, urging the government to prioritize renewable energy investments instead for a more sustainable and cost-effective energy transition. coal combustion and threatens air quality, water sources, and biodiversity.

Solar farm expansion in India brings concerns of reckless herbicide use
As solar farms proliferate across the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, communities and experts are raising concerns about the indiscriminate use of glyphosate-based herbicides to clear vegetation around the solar panels, reports contributor Gowthami Subramaniam for Mongabay India. “We fear these chemicals will seep into our water. The effects may not be visible now, […]
Gas leak from BP platform off West Africa worries fishermen, environmentalists
In January, U.K. oil giant BP announced it had started producing gas from the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) project, a natural gas production platform it operates off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal. A month later, Mauritanian media reported that a gas leak had been detected at one of the wells. In a statement shared […]
Chauffeur at Indonesia energy nonprofit drives uptake of biogas by Java farmers
- A former migrant worker and chauffeur has pioneered the use of biogas in his home village near the city of Yogyakarta on Indonesia’s Java Island.
- A net zero roadmap published by the International Energy Agency requires the production of biogas to quadruple by the year 2050.
- Critics of biogas at the industrial dairy scale say it absorbs conservation funding that is better spent elsewhere.
- Local residents near Yogyakarta city say the installation of anaerobic digesters has improved household finances and that they no longer need to queue to buy propane cylinders.

Tragedy haunts community on shore of Sumatra’s largest solar farm
- A joint venture between Indonesia’s state-owned electricity utility PLN and Saudi developer ACWA Power says it remains on track to build Sumatra’s largest floating solar power array on Lake Singkarak by 2027.
- The renewable energy project’s managers face a difficult task on the ground getting local community members on board with the project, given lingering memories of a flash flood 25 years earlier linked to a hydroelectric plant.
- Local fishers told Mongabay Indonesia they also fear the installation of solar panels on the lake’s surface will impact the stocks of the fish they rely on as their primary source of income.
- Indonesia has set ambitious renewable energy goals to meet its international climate change commitments, but several energy transition projects are creating new land conflicts and cases of displacement across the world’s fourth most populous country.

Nickel miners dig up Indonesia’s Gebe Island despite Indigenous and legal opposition
- Gebe Island in eastern Indonesia is the site of seven nickel mining concessions.
- Local Indigenous communities say the mining sites have put their food security at risk, with pollution affecting fruit trees and root vegetables as well as depletion of local fisheries.
- Forestry campaigners say the mining clashes with a 2007 law on small islands designed to prevent large-scale environmental destruction in these fragile ecosystems.
- Gene’s nickel ore is shipped to the Weda Bay Industrial Park on the mainland of North Maluku province, Halmahera, where Mongabay has reported on rising incidences of disease among communities living alongside the vast smelting estate.

Forest biomass growth to soar through 2030, impacting tropical forests
- The forest biomass industry — cutting forests to make wood pellets to be burned in power plants — will continue booming through 2030, says a new report. By then, pellets made in the U.S., Canada, EU and Russia could top 31 million metric tons annually, with those made in tropical nations surging to over 11 million tons yearly.
- The U.K. and EU are forecast to go on burning huge amounts of pellets (more than 18 million metric tons each year by 2030). But Asia will burn even more (27 million tons), with Japan and South Korea expanding use, as Taiwan enters the market.
- Scientists warn that forest biomass burning is unsustainable and produces more CO2 emissions than coal per unit of energy generated. Pellet-making is contributing to deforestation and biodiversity loss in North America, and will increasingly do so in tropical nations, including Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia.
- Forest advocates continue campaigning against biomass for energy, achieving some hard-won victories. Enviva, the world’s largest biomass producer, went bankrupt in 2024, while South Korea and Japan have taken first steps to reduce subsidies for wood pellets. But the U.K. continues offering millions in subsidies to biomass power plants.

‘Without us, no scrutiny’: Indonesia’s independent media count cost of US funding cuts
- U.S. funding cuts abruptly ended reporting initiatives on environmental issues in Indonesia, affecting independent journalism outlets like Remotivi, New Naratif and Project Multatuli.
- The loss of nearly $270 million in global journalism support leaves independent media scrambling to cover environmental and human rights issues.
- Shrinking newsroom budgets and government restrictions have already weakened investigative journalism in Indonesia, now worsened by the U.S. aid cuts.
- Facing uncertainty, media groups are pushing to diversify revenue streams and reduce reliance on foreign grants to sustain independent reporting.

In remote Philippine villages, micro-hydro alternatives power Indigenous homes
- Around 3.6 million households in the Philippines are not connected to the national power grid. In the country’s mountainous north, some villages have overcome this challenge by building and maintaining small-scale hydroelectric generators.
- These micro-hydro systems have small environmental footprints and have allowed electricity to reach villages before road networks do, thanks to communal efforts to haul equipment through the mountains on foot or on horseback.
- This region has a long history of conflict over planned mega hydroelectric dams, and an NGO that helps communities build and maintain micro-hydro systems says they are working in an environment of increasingly hostile scrutiny from the military.

African NGOs appeal judgement in controversial oil pipeline case
Four NGOs recently appealed to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) to have their concerns about a contentious oil pipeline heard on merit. The landmark case, filed four years ago, had previously been dismissed on technical grounds. The four East African NGOs — the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (CEFROHT) and the […]
Oil drilling in the mouth of the Amazon – Lula on a course to disaster (commentary)
- Brazil’s president Lula has greatly escalated his pressure for approval of oil drilling in the mouth of the Amazon River since the February 1st election of a senator from the state nearest the proposed oil field as the new president of the National Senate.
- As shown by the 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico when oil spilled out of control for 5 months from a leak at 1.5-km depth, no one has the technology to control a leak at that depth, much less at the 2.88-km depth of the proposed oil field. The economics of opening the new oil field imply that extraction would continue for decades, long past the time when the world must abandon fossil fuels.
- The hypocrisy of Lula’s claims that the oil project will finance an energy transition sacrifices the opportunity offered by COP 30 for Brazil to assume a leadership role in fighting global warming. The disastrous consequences for Brazil if climate change passes a tipping point make Lula´s current course a formula for disaster.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

India’s Adani withdraws from controversial Sri Lanka wind power project
- A proposed wind power project by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in the north of Sri Lanka, which ran into strong opposition from environmentalists due to multiple potential ecological impacts, particularly on migratory bird species, has come to halt.
- Five lawsuits were filed against the company by local environmental organizations due to the project’s alleged environmental consequences as well as the contract being awarded without competitive bidding.
- Amid growing controversy, Adani Green Energy Ltd. withdrew from the proposed project on Feb. 12 claiming “financial nonviability” weeks after the new Sri Lankan government sought to renegotiate the agreement and formed a committee to review and renegotiate the power purchase rate.
- Mannar, a district rich in wildlife and known for its picturesque quality, is currently experiencing a surge in nature-based tourism, particularly due to its rich birdlife.

Documents, satellite data expose ongoing pollution near TotalEnergies’ Republic of Congo oil terminal
- For years, residents of the coastal village of Djeno in the Republic of Congo have complained of hydrocarbon pollution and the effects of gas flaring on their health.
- TotalEnergies EP Congo (TEPC), a subsidiary of the French oil giant, has had its contract to manage the Djeno terminal renewed, despite evidence of remaining pollution from half a century of operations.
- The environment ministry has prohibited toxic gas emissions, as well as the discharge of polluting substances, into marine and continental waters.
- In a statement, TEPC said it had taken steps to mitigate pollution in the area, adding that industrial activities by other companies had also contributed to the situation.

As Indonesia, US back away from climate goals, hopes fade to retire coal plants early
- Despite commitments to transition away from coal, Indonesia faces major hurdles in closing coal-fired power plants due to economic concerns, legal risks, and political resistance.
- Indonesia’s climate envoy has cast doubt on the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement, calling coal plant closures “economic suicide,” threatening the $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).
- High-ranking government officials and investors with coal assets, along with concerns over legal repercussions for state losses, hinder efforts to retire coal plants early.
- While some renewable projects are progressing, restrictive policies and funding shortfalls limit expansion, though debt swaps for clean energy investment offer a potential solution.

Indigenous people cut down trees as solar energy remains inaccessible and costly in DRC
- Solar energy, which researchers say offers much potential to meet the Democratic Republic of Congo’s energy needs, remains largely unaffordable and out of reach for Indigenous Batwa people and rural residents.
- Mongabay visited villages off the power grid in the DRC’s Tanganyika province, where Indigenous people and local communities aspire to have access to electricity and embrace a new way of life.
- As electricity remains out of reach, despite a handful of solar panels, most rely on cutting wood from forests and savannah for firewood and charcoal — spiking deforestation in the region.
- Researchers and environmentalists suggest government subsidies, favorable taxes, and investing in cheaper Chinese solar panels to make solar energy more accessible and affordable for Indigenous and rural communities. Hydropower dams, say some, also offer cheaper long-term solutions but can come with environmental costs.

Surge in legal land clearing pushes up Indonesia deforestation rate in 2024
- Indonesia’s deforestation increased in 2024 to its highest level since 2021, with forest area four times the size of Jakarta lost; 97% of this occurred within legal concessions, highlighting a shift from illegal to legal deforestation.
- More than half of the forest loss affected critical habitats for threatened species like orangutans, tigers and elephants, particularly in Borneo and Sumatra.
- Key industries driving deforestation include palm oil, pulpwood, and nickel mining, with significant deforestation in Kalimantan, Sumatra and Papua; a new pulp mill in Kalimantan in particular may be driving aggressive land clearing.
- Despite an existing moratorium on new forest-clearance permits, there’s no protection for forests within existing concessions, allowing continued deforestation, and spurring calls for stronger policies to safeguard remaining natural forests.

Disease surges in Indonesia community on frontline of world energy transition
- Residential areas next to a major nickel processing site on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island recorded exponential increases in diagnoses of respiratory infections between 2020 and 2023.
- During that same period, the value of nickel exports from Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of the metal, increased from around $800 million to $6.8 billion.
- Interviews by Mongabay with residents of one village in the area indicate health conditions there have deteriorated rapidly.

Indonesia mulls Paris Agreement exit, citing fairness and energy transition costs
- Indonesia is considering withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, arguing it is unfair for developing nations to comply when a major polluter like the U.S. has pulled out, again.
- Officials highlight Indonesia’s lower per capita emissions and stress the need for more financial aid to transition away from coal.
- Environmental groups warn that exiting the agreement could harm Indonesia’s economy, global reputation, and ability to secure climate funding.
- While Indonesia signed a $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) deal in 2022, slow fund disbursement has fueled frustration, and coal remains central to its energy strategy.

Mineral exploitation overshadows green diplomacy in Congo’s Sangha region
- The Republic of Congo’s minister of mines has issued at least 79 semi-industrial gold mining and exploration permits in the Sangha region, despite the area being officially designated for a REDD+ project.
- Sangha’s REDD+ program aims to reduce deforestation and degradation and is fundamentally incompatible with gold mining, which has caused widespread destruction of forests and pollution of water bodies in Congo and elsewhere.
- The head of the country’s REDD+ program argues that the mining industry drives national development.
- Some of the mining permits have been issued to individuals with ties to the government as well as to controversial figures.

Indonesia rushes mining law amendments, raising environmental and governance alarms
- Indonesia’s parliament is rapidly advancing changes to its mining law, allowing universities and religious organizations to acquire mining permits without bidding, raising concerns over environmental harm and weakened governance.
- Critics warn that easier access to mining for nontraditional actors will accelerate deforestation, pollution and social conflicts, contradicting Indonesia’s climate commitments while benefiting business elites.
- The amendments were approved in just 12 hours, during a recess period, with minimal transparency, fueling speculation that oligarchs and officials with mining ties are pushing the changes for personal gain.
- The inclusion of religious and educational institutions in mining risks conflicts of interest, weakening environmental advocacy and undermining public faith in these institutions.

African nations commit to electricity for 300 million people by 2030
The heads of 30 African nations have endorsed a plan to provide “reliable, affordable and sustainable” electricity to 300 million people across the continent over the next five years. The leaders signed the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration at the “Mission 300” energy summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this week. The mission was […]
Fashion has a coal problem, but the solutions are electrifying (commentary)
- A handful of fashion brands – H&M, Ralph Lauren, Decathlon and Adidas – are working to stop using coal to power their factories in 2025, while others are prioritizing decarbonization at lower levels of ambition.
- These actions often come in relation to the public commitments they have made following consumer and NGO pressure, and the use of biomass like wood chips and palm oil waste has arisen as one way to fuel their boilers, but the longer term answer that doesn’t cut trees or incinerate crop waste is increasingly electric, a former H&M decarbonization project manager says in a new op-ed.
- “Electrify everything” is finally gaining traction in the garment industry after feeling like an impossible dream, and it is electrification – and renewable electricity in particular – that he argues will drive near term positive impact, if brands are willing to support the short-term increases in energy prices.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

DRC orders environmental, operational audits of oil company Perenco
The Democratic Republic of Congo has commissioned year-long audits of French-British multinational Perenco to assess “the reality” of its oil production and environmental impacts. The DRC’s Ministry of Hydrocarbons has appointed U.K.-based Alex Stewart International (ASI) to examine the technical and operational aspects of Perenco’s oil production activities, including a review of the company’s declared […]
Pilot-turned-climate activist Todd Smith finds other ways to fly
Todd Smith says he fell in love with planes after watching an air show at age 5. “And I just thought, well, they look like they’re having fun, and that’s what I want to do,” he tells host Rachel Donald on an episode of the Mongabay Newscast, a weekly podcast by Mongabay. Smith says he […]
Investors wary of Indonesia’s big climate promises amid record of flip-flopping
- Energy industry insiders and experts say they’re skeptical about Indonesia’s lofty climate goals, the latest of which, as announced by the country’s president at last year’s G20 summit, is to shutter all coal-fired power plants over the next 15 years.
- President Prabowo Subianto also pledged to develop 75 gigawatts of cleaner forms of energy during the same period — more than five times the country’s current renewable generation.
- On the solar front, rooftop solar startup Xurya Daya Indonesia points out that ever-changing regulations now ban sales of excess power to the grid, putting off investors looking to set up shop in the country.
- And in EVs, an ambitious program to subsidize the conversion of 50,000 gasoline-powered motorcycles to electric in 2024 saw just 1,500 make the transition.

Coal gasification, an old technology, is quietly expanding across Asia
- Several of Asia’s biggest economies are promoting coal gasification as a viable part of their clean energy transition, arguing that turning coal into synthetic gas yields a cleaner fuel and reduces dependence on imports of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas.
- But activists and experts point out that gasified coal is still a highly polluting fossil fuel, and that relying on it prolongs coal mining, which has long been linked to environmental and human rights violations.
- In China, coal gasification to replace industrial petrochemicals usually produced from oil and natural gas grew by 18% in 2023, consuming more than 340 million metric tons of coal a year.
- However, cost concerns may slow the push elsewhere: investors have jumped ship from Indonesia’s inaugural gasification project, while the tab for a gas refit of a coal-fired power plant in Japan has grown so big that experts question its feasibility.

Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
- Irresponsible mining for critical minerals, like those used in renewable technologies, can threaten the existence of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, who are amongst the world’s most vulnerable populations.
- Companies like Tesla are considering no-go zones where uncontacted people live. While the idea of establishing these zones is increasingly pragmatic, the author says the most crucial thing for companies to do is conduct rigorous human rights due diligence from the initial stages of mine development right through to closure.
- Danielle Martin from the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) says this approach relies on the meaningful and inclusive engagement and the participation of affected Indigenous peoples. But for Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, engagement and participation may not be possible and agreement may not be attainable.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Indonesian forestry minister proposes 20m hectares of deforestation for crops
- Indonesia’s forestry minister says 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of forest can be converted to grow food and biofuel crops, or an area twice the size of South Korea.
- Experts have expressed alarm over the plan, citing the potential for massive greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity.
- They also say mitigating measures that the minister has promised, such as the use of agroforestry and the involvement of local communities, will have limited impact in such a large-scale scheme.
- The announcement coincides with the Indonesian president’s call for an expansion of the country’s oil palm plantations, claiming it won’t result in deforestation because oil palms are also trees.

South Korea slashes forest biomass energy subsidies in major policy reform
- In a surprise move, South Korea has announced that it will end subsidies for all new biomass projects and for existing state-owned plants cofiring biomass with coal, effective January 2025, a significant and sudden policy shift.
- Additionally, government financial support for dedicated biomass plants using imported biomass will be phased down, while support for privately owned cofiring plants will be phased out over the next decade. However, subsidy levels for domestically produced biomass fuel remain unchanged.
- The biomass reform is being hailed by forest advocates as a step in the right direction, potentially setting a new, environmentally sound precedent for the region.
- Advocates are now calling on Japan, Asia’s largest forest biomass importer, to follow South Korea’s example.

Next-gen geothermal offers circular promise, but needs care and caution
- Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) and other next-generation geothermal tech show promise as a relatively clean, reliable renewable energy source for a post-fossil fuels future.
- Next-gen geothermal uses a variety of engineering techniques, including hydraulic fracturing borrowed from the oil and gas drilling industry, to create conditions for successful subsurface energy production beyond traditional locations, such as hot springs.
- Enhanced geothermal’s promise of a reliable source of power is huge around the globe, but so far has barely been tapped, say experts. Companies are starting to develop commercial-scale projects, aiming to harness this potential.
- But next-gen geothermal is not without risk. There are concerns, for example, that this tech can induce seismicity. In the past decade, earthquakes shut down two EGS projects in South Korea and Switzerland. Yet, experts say this concern and other environmental impacts, such as pollution, can be controlled and mitigated.

Renewables won’t save us from climate catastrophe, experts warn; what will?
- Demand for renewable energy, particularly solar panels, is growing at an exponential rate. But the shift to solar, wind, EVs and other sustainable tech solutions has sparked an environmentally destructive mining boom and is itself carbon intensive.
- And even as renewables boom, we’re burning more fossil fuels than ever, setting another record for emissions in 2023. So it appears high tech alone can’t save the world from catastrophic climate change; only massive cuts in fossil fuels can do that, say experts. But even addressing the climate change planetary boundary isn’t enough.
- Five other planetary boundaries are in the danger zone, though solutions exist to reverse these negative environmental trends, say analysts. But for those solutions to happen, governments must shift trillions of dollars in “perverse subsidies” (that support fossil fuels and do environmental harm) to renewable energy.
- Without real, drastic, decisive action now, the sixth great mass extinction could be unstoppable and doom modern life as we know it. Still, there’s another way forward: Learn from Indigenous cultures, with their willingness and ability to integrate into the biosphere, and to humbly turn away from greed and overconsumption.

Foreign investor lawsuits impede Honduras human rights & environment protections
- Foreign investors in Honduras have “extraordinary privileges,” allowing them to sue the government for reforms that affect their investments, hindering public interest legislation, a recent report has found.
- Honduras faces billions of dollars in lawsuits from corporations, many tied to controversial investments made after the 2009 coup, creating a deterrent effect on the government’s ability to make sovereign decisions and making it the second-most-sued country in Latin America over the period of 2023 to August 2024, after Mexico.
- Some local communities in Honduras are divided over foreign investment projects, with several expressing resistance due to concerns about their impact on the environment and land rights.
- Honduras’ recent energy reforms and mining bans are facing backlash and legal challenges, as foreign corporations resist changes aimed at protecting natural resources and human rights.

Indonesian forests put at risk by South Korean and Japanese biomass subsidies
- Subsidies for forest biomass energy in Japan and South Korea are contributing to deforestation in Southeast Asia, according to an October 2024 report by environmental NGOs. The biomass industry is expanding especially quickly in Indonesia; the nation is exporting rapidly growing volumes of wood pellets, and is burning biomass at its domestic power plants.
- Japanese trading company Hanwa confirmed that rainforest is being cleared to establish an energy forest plantation for wood pellet production in Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island. Hanwa owns a stake in the project. The wood pellet mill uses cleared rainforest as a feedstock while the monoculture plantation is being established.
- A Hanwa representative defended the Sulawesi biomass project by claiming the area consists of previously logged secondary growth and that the energy plantation concession is not officially classified as “forest area.”
- The Japanese government is supporting biomass use across Southeast Asia through its Asia Zero Emission Community initiative, begun in 2023.

Thai citizens protest plans for Mekong dam amid transboundary concerns
- Citizens in northern Thailand staged protests along the shore of the Mekong River on Dec. 7 to draw attention to a controversial dam slated to be built on the river’s mainstream over the border in Laos.
- They demanded Thai banks and policymakers withdraw their support for the scheme due to its as-yet-unknown cross-border environmental and social impacts.
- The protests follow a particularly turbulent wet season marked by record-breaking floods that wrought high costs on riverside communities. Experts have said the dam would exacerbate such events should it be built.
- Halting the project to allow sufficient time for thorough transboundary ecological and social studies is absolutely critical, the activists said.

DRC’s reliance on charcoal threatens forests and fuels armed conflict
- More than 90% of the population in the Democratic Republic of Congo rely on charcoal for their energy needs, driving the pervasive logging of forests across the country.
- One of the affected areas is Virunga National Park and its surroundings, the source of the wood for 92% of the charcoal used in North Kivu province.
- Activists and experts attribute the problem to the inaccessibility and high cost of grid electricity, as well as the fact that long-running armed conflict has led to 2.7 million people, out of North Kivu’s official population of 6.6 million, becoming internally displaced.
- Some initiatives underway aim to tackle the problem, including development of solar and hydroelectric power, and commercial tree plantations to produce charcoal, but none of these are at the scale required yet to make a meaningful impact.

Just energy transition reports urge care in surge to reach global renewable energy goals
- Nearly 100 Indigenous representatives agreed on a first-ever document to define what a just energy transition is from an Indigenous perspective, with eleven principles to make the transition fair and equitable.
- Another report highlights approaches for fair co-ownership models and negotiations between Indigenous communities and corporations in instances where communities agree to projects on their lands.
- To meet renewable energy goals, there will need to be an increase in mining for critical minerals that power renewable energy technologies, many of which are on Indigenous lands, say analysts.
- A researcher has proposed additional solutions to meet the growing demand while respecting the principles around a just energy transition, including a framework to track mineral needs and which mines truly serve climate purposes.

Photos: The lives and forests bound to Indonesia’s nickel dreams
- Many lives are intertwined with nickel mining on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island: Indigenous peoples, mining employees, smelter workers, fishers, farmers, and health care workers.
- Indonesia, the world’s largest supplier of nickel, is on a quest for an industrial economic boom linked to the mineral, which is in high demand to make electric vehicle batteries.
- Indigenous people on Halmahera say they worry for their forests and survival of isolated tribal members, while workers at a sprawling industrial park withstand tough working conditions in a bid to materially improve their lives.
- Nickel mining in the region has led to the deforestation of 5,331 hectares (13,173 acres) of tropical forest that held 2.04 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.

Legal battle against controversial oil pipeline faces another setback
A critical legal case filed by four East African NGOs against a controversial oil pipeline is facing yet another delay, but the NGOs say they remain hopeful. “What we need is for the court to hear the case on its merit, and we believe we have presented good evidence,” Dickens Kamugisha, CEO of the Africa […]
New transmission lines cut a Cambodian rainforest sanctuary in half
- Satellite imagery, drone photography and testimony from residents indicate that work has begun on electricity transmission lines that will cut through the heart of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary in order to connect Cambodia’s energy grid with that of Laos.
- A 5.8-kilometer-long (3.6-mile) strip of land has already been cleared inside Prey Lang, indicating that plans are moving forward to run the transmission lines 65 km (40 mi) through the sanctuary.
- Conservationists, and even the former environment minister, recommended alternate routes avoiding the core of the forest, leading one expert to question whether the lines have been deliberately sited to facilitate access by timber traffickers and land investors.

With COP29 letdown, climate activists pin their hopes on Brazil
After the recently concluded COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan failed to raise the amount of funds sought by developing countries for climate initiatives, civil society groups are calling on Brazil, the next host for the conference in 2025, to step up and lead. “Rich countries have failed to honor their responsibilities, and shown up with […]
Push for traceability of critical minerals gains traction at COP29
Certain minerals and elements, including cobalt, copper, lithium and nickel, are crucial for the manufacture of renewable energy technologies, including electric vehicles and solar panels. However, the extraction and processing of those minerals often takes place in developing countries, far from public scrutiny and without consent from local communities, which can be left with the […]
Recent surge in methane emissions driven by microbes: Study
Emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas several times more potent than carbon dioxide, increased at record-high rates between 2020 and 2022. A new study suggests that rather than fossil fuels, microbes were responsible for this recent methane surge. Until the early 2000s, fossil fuel production drove much of the increase in atmospheric methane, study lead […]
Dam displaces farmers as drought parches Indonesia’s Flores Island
- In 2015, Indonesia announced the construction of seven dams to provide water in East Nusa Tenggara province, an eastern region of the archipelago where access to freshwater is scarce during the annual dry season.
- One of the national priority dams, the Lambo Dam on Flores Island, has yet to be finished because of a land dispute with Indigenous communities in Nagekeo district.
- Research shows that much of Indonesia, particularly in the east, face increasing water stress due to climate change, as well as drought spikes brought on by the positive Indian Ocean dipole and El Niño patterns.

DRC mines might be poisoning pregnant women
KOLWEZI, Democratic Republic of the Congo – A Mongabay investigation found that industrial and artisanal mining of cobalt and copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo could pose risks to women’s reproductive health. Both cobalt and copper are critical minerals in demand for their essential role in battery-powered technologies, including renewable energy technologies. We collected […]
Cobalt mining for green energy risks women’s reproductive health in DRC
- In the Democratic Republic of Congo, industrial and artisanal mining of cobalt and copper, essential for battery-powered technologies, poses risks to the reproductive health of women, preliminary research suggests.
- Sources in the Golf Musonoie region of Kolwezi, the “world’s cobalt capital,” highlight a rising number of cases involving birth defects , stillbirths, infant deaths shortly after birth, and infections.
- The scientific community doesn’t yet know to what extent the extraction process affects reproductive health, but suspects include the radioactive uranium found in ores, as well as the pollution from mining waste and chemicals in the water.
- This report was produced in partnership with the Environmental Reporting Collective, a network of newsrooms and journalists committed to cross-border investigations on environmental crimes. It is part of the collaboraive investigation: Greed of Green: The Dark Side of Green Energy.

Cobalt Capital
Cobalt is a critical mineral for lithium-ion batteries that power a range of renewable energy storage systems, including electric vehicles and consumer electronics. In the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt capital, southeastern Katanga Province, mining pollution is increasing and polluters often fail to respond properly, in accordance with Congolese law. According to […]
Activists fear supercharged ‘business as usual’ under Indonesia’s new president
- Environmental activists say they see no letup in fossil fuel burning and environmental degradation under Indonesia’s new president, Prabowo Subianto.
- Subianto earlier this week touted the importance of the clean energy transition and sustainable agriculture in a meeting with Joe Biden at the White House, but back home has made appointments and promoted policies to the contrary.
- The new administration is set to supercharge the “food estate” program that activists warn repeats a long pattern of deforestation for little gain, and continue championing a nickel industry responsible for widespread environmental destruction and emissions.
- It’s also relying on controversial bioenergy to fuel its energy transition, which scientists largely agree isn’t carbon-neutral and which, in Indonesia’s case, threatens greater deforestation and the displacement of Indigenous and forest-dependent communities.

Mountain highland bats lack data, face climate threats: Study
Bats in mountainous regions are facing more threats and lack of data compared with their lowland counterparts, a recent study showed. Lead author Rohit Chakravarty in an interview with Mongabay said there is much to be learned about bats dwelling in mountains, which are known to host one-third of the world’s biodiversity and half of […]
Mining drove 1.4m hectares of forest loss in last 2 decades: Report
Global mining activity is increasingly destroying forests, including protected areas, according to a recent analysis. Between 2001 and 2020, nearly 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of tree cover, an area a third the size of Denmark, was lost from mining-related activity, the analysis from the World Resources Institute (WRI) found. The associated greenhouse gas […]
Africa needs COP29 funding & international finance reform to manage climate change (commentary)
- From 11 to 22 November, the world will be looking to leaders to ramp up action and financial support for nations on the frontlines of climate change.
- COP29 is billed as the ‘finance COP’ because it is time for countries to set a new global climate finance goal. Will Africa get the support it requires, this time?
- “It is important to acknowledge the significant role that the COPs play in addressing climate change [but] it is equally crucial to prioritize efforts aimed at comprehensively reforming the international financial infrastructure to ensure fair and just treatment of Africa,” writes Mongabay Africa’s program director.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Action against forest biomass subsidies gains momentum at COP16
- Forest advocates have long warned that burning forest biomass to make energy — touted as a climate solution by the forestry industry — releases more carbon emissions than coal does per unit of electricity generated. They’ve argued that cutting trees to turn them into wood pellets degrades forest carbon stores and biodiversity.
- This week those arguments are finally being heard at the COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia. Also being seriously considered are the “perverse subsidies” offered to the forestry industry by national governments to convert forests into wood pellets, and to biomass power plants that burn those pellets.
- These issues have not achieved such a high level of official notice before at a UN summit and could result in the question of forest biomass subsidies being raised at the COP29 climate meeting next month in Baku, Azerbaijan.
- The illogic of forest biomass burning was especially noted by Barry Gardiner, a UK member of Parliament who objects to huge taxpayer subsidies paid to Drax, a British biomass power plant operator. “That’s $9 billion in public money spent making our air pollution and our carbon emissions worse,” while razing forests.

Indonesia biomass zone for Japan and S. Korea energy razes rainforest in Sulawesi
- In 2022, Indonesia’s then-president, Joko Widodo, revoked hundreds of operating permits affecting millions of hectares of land previously zoned for new mines and plantations.
- A small proportion of this land has since been reallocated for “energy plantation forests,” in which an area is cleared to plant fast-growing trees that are later cut and chipped to replace some of the coal burned by power plants.
- On the island of Sulawesi, an Indonesian company is exporting wood pellets sourced from two firms that held oil palm licenses prior to the 2022 policy move.
- While biomass cofiring is accounted as a form of renewable energy, environmentalists object to clearing forests as a means of offsetting coal emissions.

NGO takes on BlackRock over ‘sustainable’ funds that prop up oil majors
Environment law NGO ClientEarth has filed a complaint against asset management giant BlackRock with France’s financial markets authority for allegedly misnaming multiple retail investment funds as “sustainable.” In its complaint to the French regulator, the AMF, ClientEarth said 18 of BlackRock’s actively managed retail investment funds provided in France included the term “sustainable” in their […]
New survey puts human face on pollution caused by U.S. wood pellet mills
- A new groundbreaking survey highlights the human toll from pollution and other quality of life impacts connected to those living near the forest biomass industry’s wood pellet mills in the U.S Southeast.
- Door-to-door interviews were conducted by a coalition of NGOs, with 312 households surveyed in five mostly poor, rural and minority communities located near pellet mills operated by Drax and Enviva, two of the world’s largest pellet makers.
- In four of the five newly surveyed communities, 86% of households reported at least one family member with diseases or ailments, which they say are related to, or made worse by, pellet mill pollution. 2023 research found that pellet mills emit 55 toxic pollutants that largely impact environmental justice communities.
- The wood pellet industry says the survey was not scientifically rigorous and that its members strive to control pollution and improve the local economies in communities where they work.

‘Treat us as partners, central actors’: Interview with Indigenous activist Joan Carling
- Joan Carling recently became the first Indigenous Filipino to win the Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Carling called for the recognition of Indigenous peoples as partners and central actors in conservation and climate action.
- Carling said the push for development projects, the transition to renewable energy, and “fortress conservation” have resulted in criminalization and human rights violations.
- Instead, she said, governments should recognize Indigenous land rights and incorporate traditional knowledge in conservation efforts.

Revealed: Biomass firm poised to clear Bornean rainforest for dubious ‘green’ energy
- Indonesia’s strategy for increasing renewable energy production could see Indigenous communities lose huge swathes of their forests to biomass plantations.
- Mongabay visited the planned site of one such project on the island of Borneo, where three villages have signed over at least 5,000 hectares of their land to a biomass company. Much of this area, locals say, is covered in rainforest that would presumably be cleared for the project.
- Despite its billing as sustainable, research has shown that burning woody biomass emits more climate change-causing CO2 than coal per unit of electricity produced. The company in Borneo, moreover, has said it plans to export the wood pellets to be produced on its plantation.
- Villagers we spoke to complained of unfair dealing by the company, from inadequate compensation to outright land grabbing with no payment or consent.

Delay of EU Deforestation Regulation may ‘be excuse to gut law,’ activists fear
- In a surprise move, the European Commission has proposed a 12-month delay in implementation of the EU’s groundbreaking deforestation law, which was slated to go into effect in January 2025.
- The European Parliament still needs to approve the delay, but is expected to do so. The law is meant to regulate global deforestation caused by a range of commodities from soy to coffee, cattle, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and wood products, including industrial-scale wood pellets burned to make energy.
- Commodity companies, including those in the pellet industry, say the law’s certification requirements are onerous and the 2025 start date is too soon for compliance. The industries are supported by commodities-producing nations such as Brazil, Indonesia and the United States (a primary source of wood pellets).
- Forest campaigners, including those opposing tree harvests for wood pellets, fear that delay of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will offer commodity companies and exporting nations time to water down the law meant to protect native forests, carbon storage and biodiversity, and delay the worst climate change impacts.

NGOs urge banks and China to refuse support for Ugandan oil projects
A group of 28 NGOs have written to 34 banks, insurance companies and the Chinese government, urging them to deny financing and other support for oil and gas projects in Uganda. The letters, written by U.S.-based Climate Rights International (CRI) and 27 Africa-based NGOs, follow a report detailing numerous human rights violations and environmental harms […]
Indonesia civil society rallies behind student investigated over nickel protest
- On Aug. 27 and Sept. 9, student advocates Christina Rumalatu and Thomas Madilis were called in for questioning by the Indonesian police following a demonstration linking floods to nickel mining in North Maluku province.
- The August demonstration in Jakarta blamed the deadly flash floods on land-use changes caused by the nickel mining boom underway in eastern Indonesia.
- The nickel mining complex in Halmahera “should not overreact to protests and try to criminalize people who are angry about the damage the nickel industry is doing to their land and water,” said Brad Adams, executive director of Climate Rights International.
- In a significant display of combined action, civil society organizations, legal advocates, youth groups in eastern Indonesia and the country’s human rights commission are rallying behind the Halmahera demonstrators, who may face prosecution under Indonesia’s widely criticized defamation law.

As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist
- The world’s oceans could play a role in supporting the clean energy grids of the future. But that possibility hinges on the successful rollout of tidal stream and wave technology. Tidal stream energy taps into the power of run-of-river or ocean movements, while wave energy generates electricity using windblown waves.
- Years of hype and failed projects have bedeviled the tidal stream industry, which is the more progressed of the two technologies. But with demonstration projects in the U.K. seeing success, momentum is now building toward commercialization.
- Tidal stream technology — using river mouth, seabed-mounted or floating turbines — could offer reliable renewable energy for island communities, cutting their current reliance on costly imported fossil fuels. But technological, environmental and supply chain hurdles remain on the path to scaling up.
- While tidal and wave power will never dominate the global grid, they could play a valuable niche role in the global energy transition.

Tensions flare as Indonesian islanders resist China solar development
- A violent confrontation between local villagers and officers of a land developer on the island of Rempang resulted in injuries and a police complaint.
- At issue is the 7,000-hectare (17,000-acre) Rempang Eco-City development on a small island that requires the eviction of thousands of local people.
- The project comprises a vast glass factory operated by a Chinese firm that will also build solar panels.
- Indonesia’s human rights commission last year sided with local residents and recommended the government review the project for potential breach of land rights.

Ever-smarter consumer electronics push world toward environmental brink
- Semiconductor microchips are the beating heart of the digital age — processing vast, ever-growing volumes of data on our smart phones, computers and other electronic devices, and on data center servers worldwide.
- As manufacturers compete to produce the ever-smaller, more powerful electronic devices consumers want, new state-of-the-art silicon chips must be designed to handle exponentially advancing computing challenges.
- But the sourcing and manufacture of these increasingly complex silicon chips is material-, energy- and water-intensive, doing major environmental harm — producing major carbon emissions and polluting with PFAS and other toxins.
- Also, the smaller and more integrated chips become, the harder they are to recycle, creating vast sums of e-waste. Experts say governments need to ensure companies embrace environmental stewardship and circular economy standards.

SE Asia renewables firms fall short on policies to protect environmental defenders
- Southeast Asia is in the midst of a drive to derive 35% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.
- However, a new report warns that wind and solar firms operating in the region lack policies to protect environmental defenders and internationally recognized human rights standards.
- The findings indicate firms are particularly deficient in pledges to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples, a finding of concern given the intensity of pressure on IP lands for extraction of transition minerals.
- Environmental defenders, climate activists and vulnerable communities are increasingly experiencing threats, attacks and judicial harassment in the region.

Record-breaking floods in northern Thailand intensify scrutiny of Mekong dam project
- Major flooding along Mekong tributaries in northern Thailand has heightened scrutiny of plans to build a major hydropower dam spanning the pivotal watercourse over the border in Laos.
- Experts say the Pak Beng Dam would worsen severe seasonal flooding by elevating water levels upstream into the stretch of the Mekong that flows through northern Thailand.
- In 2023, Thailand’s national electricity authority signed an agreement to purchase electricity from the controversial scheme, essentially greenlighting the next phase of development.
- This week, farmers, activists and policymakers met in the flood-prone province of Chiang Rai to discuss the potential cross-border impacts of the dam, with many speakers urging the Thai government and Thailand-based investors to reconsider their support of the scheme due to the risks of the dam exacerbating devastating floods.

Aluminum and steel vital to energy transition, but need circular solutions
- Aluminum and steel are in high demand today and increased volumes will be needed to achieve the energy transition and future infrastructure development.
- But mining, outdated production methods, and waste generation are putting significant pressures on several planetary boundaries — fueling climate change, impacting biodiversity, generating vast amounts of mining and other waste, using large quantities of water, and affecting human health.
- Moving away from a linear model of steel and aluminum production and consumption toward a closed-loop circular economy model could rein in some of these negative impacts and clean up these metals’ supply chains.
- Industry proponents note that circularity already occurs in both industries via recycling, but there is vast room for improvement to achieve circularity goals. This requires redesigning materials for longevity and reuse, modernizing manufacturing methods, and slashing primary raw material consumption.

Philippines hydro boom rips Indigenous communities
- The Philippine government has approved 99 hydropower projects in the mountainous Cordillera region, part of a broader plan to rely on renewable energy sources for 35% of the country’s power by 2030.
- The planned projects are dividing rural communities between those who believe the dams will bring in jobs and money and those who fear damage to water sources and cultural sites.
- The Cordillera region, home to many Indigenous groups, has a deep history of activism against dams.
- It’s also heavily militarized as one of the last bastions of an armed communist insurgency — a circumstance state security forces are apparently exploiting to coerce communities into compliance.

Aluminum and steel take environment and health toll, even as demand grows
- Steel and aluminum are two of the world’s most in-demand materials, feeding numerous sectors — including construction and transportation — with demand forecast to grow in the coming decades.
- Aluminum in particular will see a major surge in demand to supply the clean energy transition, with the metal used in lightweight electric vehicles and renewable infrastructure.
- But both these metals already carry a heavy environmental burden. Mining causes deforestation and toxic pollution with serious human health and social impacts, while refining generates major emissions contributing significantly to the climate crisis.
- Cleaning up these industries and practices is essential, say analysts. A circular economy approach holds promise but comes riddled with challenges and uncertainties.

Philippine coal mine roars into production amid waves of complaints
- San Miguel Corporation, one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates, has started mining coal from a concession in the mountain village of Ned in the country’s south.
- The local Catholic diocese, along with environmental and tribal groups, oppose the mine, citing potential risks to the environment and to the region’s water and food supply.
- Since mining began, complaints have centered on noise and traffic accidents caused by trucks hauling coal along the mountain roads, and on conditions at the relocation site where some families have already moved after selling their land and homes to the company.
- Opponents of the mine also accuse the miner of violating a provincial ban on open-pit mining, though the company claims it’s employing strip mining to extract the coal.

Study highlights climate policies that actually work to reduce emissions
To meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and avoid the worst outcomes of climate change, the world needs to rapidly reduce carbon emissions. Identifying effective policies to reach national climate goals has been challenging, but a new study published in Science examined 1500 climate policies implemented over the last two decades, and found […]
Malaysian court shuts down hydroelectric dam project on Indigenous land
- A Malaysian court ruled this week that hydropower companies building a dam on land belonging to the Indigenous Semai people of Malaysia’s Perak state had failed to secure proper consent and must halt operations immediately.
- The court also ruled that the state and federal governments, and the federal agency tasked with overseeing Indigenous affairs, had failed in their duty to protect Indigenous land from encroachment.
- Activists expressed relief and elation at the verdict, which marks a major milestone for land rights for Malaysia’s Indigenous peoples, known collectively as Orang Asal.
- The verdict can still be appealed.

Why is violence against environmental defenders getting worse? Five things to know
- Global Witness’s latest annual report shows that at least 196 people were killed last year defending the environment, up from 177 killed in 2022.
- Latin America is still the most violent region for defenders, with 166 killed in 2023. But other regions have been showing worrying trends, as well.
- The report calls for better data collection and transparency, which could help identify who is being targeted with violence and how.

Action at Scale: Elizabeth Yee on The Rockefeller Foundation’s Climate Strategy
- Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President of Programs at The Rockefeller Foundation, leads the Foundation’s global efforts to address the climate crisis, focusing on building resilient communities and systems. The Rockefeller Foundation has committed $1 billion over five years to tackle climate change, emphasizing solutions in renewable energy, food systems, health, and finance that benefit vulnerable populations.
- Yee emphasizes the importance of cross-sector partnerships—governments, private companies, and civil society—to drive systemic change and scale innovative solutions like clean energy access and AI-driven resilience.
- The Asia-Pacific region plays a central role in the Foundation’s climate strategy, as its success will be pivotal in global climate action, with Yee highlighting the region’s leadership in climate innovation and research.
- Yee recently spoke with Mongabay’s Matthew Boyer.

Indonesia’s new ‘green’ capital drives environmental damage far and wide
- The design and development of Indonesia’s new capital city, Nusantara, is nowhere near as “green” or as “smart” as the government repeatedly claims it is, experts say.
- The government has certified the new presidential palace as meeting green building standards — which it defined itself — but its use of materials and energy indicate the opposite.
- Experts cite the “excessive” use of copper and brass for the main decorative element of the palace, noting the large carbon and pollution footprints associated with mining and processing this much metal.
- A report also identifies the obliteration of forested mountains on the island of Sulawesi to supply rocks for Nusantara on the island of Borneo, as well as the impacts of dust on communities living near the quarries.

Federal court requires stronger protections for endangered Rice’s whale
A U.S. District Court in Maryland recently ruled in favor of a coalition of environmental groups, finding that a federal assessment of oil and gas activities’ impact on the critically endangered Rice’s whale was flawed. Rice’s whales (Balaenoptera ricei) were identified as a new species in 2021 after a dead whale with plastic in its […]
Indonesian Islamic behemoth’s entry into coal mining sparks youth wing revolt
- In early August, several youth organizations affiliated with Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization, released a public petition calling on its leadership to cancel its plans to operate coal mines.
- The decision by the Muhammadiyah leadership board was made in July after Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, amended mining rules to enable religious organizations to enter the mining industry.
- Grassroots activists and some senior member of the organization told Mongabay the move threatens to undermine Muhammadiyah’s extensive charity and advocacy work, in addition to environmental commitments the group made in recent years.

Sumatran province brings hammer down on illegal oil wells after fatal blasts
- Indonesia’s South Sumatra province was the site of some of the archipelago’s largest oil discoveries by U.S. and Dutch companies during the early 20th century.
- After many wells were abandoned in the 1990s, thousands of farmers who previously tapped rubber moved into freelance oil extraction.
- Fatal explosions at illegal drilling sites this year have prompted the province to form a task force to oversee a crackdown on the sector, which in some locations accounts for more than a third of local employment.

Reporting confirms alleged Indigenous rights violations in Nepal hydropower project
- Tucked between mountains sacred to Indigenous peoples in eastern Nepal, a conflict is brewing between Sangrila Urja Pvt. Ltd., a hydropower company, and yak herders who say the company violated the law by lying in government reports.
- The tug-of-war between the hydropower company and the Bhote Singsa communities is taking place in the Lungbasamba landscape, a biocultural heritage home to endangered flora and fauna and that communities have preserved for generations.
- Mongabay was able to verify most of the communities’ claims and confirm fabricated information in the environmental impact assessment, forged signatures during a public hearing and a lack of proper consultation with the community. The company director refutes the allegations and evidence and says it awaits the resumption of its activities once a lawsuit filed by civil society organizations confirms they can move forward with the project.
- This report won first place from the 2025 Indigenous Media Awards for Best International Indigenous Coverage.

Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Although no official announcements have been made about the case, human rights groups report that Vietnamese energy expert Ngô Thị Tố Nhiên has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
- Nhiên is the latest in a wave of prominent environment experts and activists to be imprisoned in Vietnam. She was charged with “appropriating internal documents” relating to the country’s state-owned power company.
- Two power company employees working as consultants for Nhiên’s organization were also arrested and charged with appropriating documents, but even less is known about the outcome of their cases.

No plans, no progress make Peru’s energy transition uncertain
- In Peru, greenhouse gas emissions come primarily from land use change, followed by oil and gas-fired power generation.
- Renewable wind, solar and biomass energy accounts for 6% of the country’s power, although the goal is to reach 20% by 2030.
- According to experts that spoke to Mongabay Latam, the Peruvian energy policy is not fit for purpose and the country lacks a direction of travel for its energy transition.

Muhammadiyah latest faith group to join Indonesia religious coal rush
- Indonesia President Joko Widodo has amended mining rules to enable religious organizations to operate coal mines, a decision that has been widely criticized by civil society in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.
- On July 28, the country’s second-largest Islamic group, Muhammadiyah, announced it would accept government offers to manage a coal concession. The move followed a similar decision by Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization.
- In recent years, Islamic clerics and organizations have won praise for their increased focus on biodiversity and climate issues.
- Grassroots activists within Muhammadiyah told Mongabay that the decision to mine coal introduced reputational risks and threatened to unwind recent progress.

Biomass power grows in Japan despite new understanding of climate risks
- New biomass power plants continue to come online in Japan, requiring an ever-greater quantity of imported fuel. The government’s feed-in tariff scheme, which has been tweaked but not canceled, incentivized these projects.
- Although understanding of forest biomass’s negative environmental and climate impacts is growing in Japan, policy advocates say operators of existing biomass power plants need to pay back construction bank loans, and the government’s refusal to admit its mistake is keeping biomass plants running.
- A major biomass fuel type is wood pellets, which in Japan is presently primarily sourced from plantation forests in Vietnam and primary forests in British Columbia, Canada. While BC ecologists have spoken out against wood pellets, and found allies in Vietnam, the biomass issue has proved challenging for Japan’s forest advocates.
- Though historically a small source of wood pellets for Japan, the growing popularity in Indonesia of pellets for both export and domestic use risks tropical forests there being cleared to make way for biomass energy plantations, NGOs warn.

Beleaguered Indonesian civil society gets lift in push for just energy transition
- The European Union has launched four projects in Indonesia aimed at empowering civil society organizations as they participate in determining the country’s clean energy transition.
- The projects include support for CSOs advocating for the rights of Indigenous groups, women and youths as pertains to Indonesia’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2060.
- The government is betting a large part of this transition on nickel as a key ingredient in batteries and other clean energy technology, but the mining and processing of the metal is wreaking environmental and social havoc on forests and communities.
- The effort to boost CSO participation comes as environmental and human rights defenders face an increasingly hostility and criminalization for criticizing government policies and projects.

Electric vehicles are not so green
Electric vehicles are marketed as a climate change solution. But they’re not very “green,” report Gerry McGovern and Sue Branford for Mongabay. The first problem lies in how electric vehicles (EVs) are manufactured. To create a typical electric car, you need six times more minerals than a conventional internal combustion engine. Two minerals that are […]
Rare earth elements may be found in coal mines, study finds.
The renewable energy revolution including solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles is largely dependent on the extraction 17 rare earth elements (REE). Indeed, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) have surged in recent years, with a 35% increase in 2023. However, extracting the REE needed to produce EVs and green energy can be very damaging […]
Loopholes allow multilateral development banks to fund captive coal in Indonesia: Report
- A new report shows that publicly funded multilateral development banks might indirectly fund captive coal projects such as an Obi Island nickel smelter that received indirect financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
- The 2023 commitment to stop funding new coal facilities does not include captive coal; the Indonesian government has said that such loopholes allow for the development of new coal plants as long as they’re built to supply electricity to industries that will increase the added value of natural resources, such as captive coal plants for nickel and aluminum smelters.
- This means that multilateral banks can continue financing captive coal power that’s contributing to EV and renewable energy supply chains without technically breaking the country’s climate commitments.

Jokowi’s religious mining rule divides Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization
- In May 2024, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, signed a new regulation to enable the country’s religious organizations to become mining operators.
- The policy has been criticized extensively by civil society groups, some of which view the move as the result of a political bargain for Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic organization, to deliver votes to Jokowi’s chosen successor in the February 2024 presidential election.
- Young people within Nahdlatul Ulama told Mongabay Indonesia that Indonesia’s largest Islamic group would be reneging on its environmental commitments if it were to follow through on plans to operate coal mining concessions.

Industrial minerals in the Pan Amazon
- The Brazilian Amazon hosts a huge mineral wealth, ranging from bauxite and cassiterite to tin, nobium, tantalum and coltan, providing raw materials for the steel industry, electronics, technology and medical sectors.
- This mineral abundance has also been enormously detrimental to ecosystems and Indigenous people across the region.
- Many of the mines that were once state-run are now managed by Canadian and Chinese transnational corporations. As global demand for rare earth elements increases, production in the mines will have to diversify.

Java farmers vow to live under own steam as geothermal project falters
- A major renewable energy project in Indonesia’s Banten province has yet to be developed more than 15 years since the area was zoned for geothermal energy.
- At issue is opposition from local farming communities, who see threats to their livelihood and worry about contamination of water sources.
- Indonesia has the world’s largest geothermal energy potential, but a complexity of factors has weighed on development of the sector, including community objections to land conversion.

Indigenous communities in Sarawak left in the dark about hydropower proposal
- Malaysian officials recently announced new dam projects on three rivers in the Bornean state of Sarawak without the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of local people.
- The managing director of the Sarawak-based NGO SAVE Rivers, Celine Lim, says her community relies on the Tutoh River for food and for transport, so the announcement “definitely threw the community into a frenzy because no one knew of this plan before the announcement.”
- Project opponents have gathered 650 signatures on a petition calling for more information from the government before the project can move forward, after initial requests for information were ignored.
- Lim joins Mongabay’s podcast to share with co-host Rachel Donald how the potential dam projects could impact the rivers and human communities, and reflects on lessons learned from a recent visit with Indigenous communities in California who successfully argued for the removal of dams on the Klamath River and are now restoring its floodplain.

BASF, Eramet drop $2.6b Indonesian nickel project that threatens isolated tribe
- Germany’s BASF and France’s Eramet have pulled out of a $2.6 billion nickel-and-cobalt refinery in Halmahera, Indonesia, amid criticism that the mine supplying it threatens the forest home of an isolated Indigenous tribe.
- The refinery is part of the wider Weda Bay Nickel project, the world’s biggest nickel mine, whose concession overlaps with forests that are home to the hunter-gatherer Forest Tobelo people.
- Neither company mentioned the threat to the tribe in announcing their withdrawal from the project, attributing the decision instead to changing supply dynamics.
- Activists have welcomed the withdrawal as a respite for the Forest Tobelo, but this could be temporary, as Indonesia’s investment minister says the government is still negotiating with BASF and Eramet to return to the project.

Sweeping reform package threatens environmental protections in Argentina, critics say
- Lawmakers in Argentina passed a massive reform package to overhaul the economy, but many of its policies weaken protections for local communities and encourage accelerated investment in projects with a record of deforestation and pollution.
- With over 230 articles, the controversial bill was approved by the senate earlier this month then sent back to the lower house for a final vote.
- One article in the reform streamlines the development of large investment in infrastructure, oil and gas and the mining of copper and lithium, among other things. It could let companies off the hook for endangering the environment, critics say.
- Another article modifies an administrative law on public hearings that could make it harder for local communities to contest new projects.

Hydropower dams further undermine REDD+ efforts in Cambodia
- Five hydropower dams are currently being built in the Cardamom Mountains with reservoirs set to collectively span more than 15,000 hectares (37,065 acres) across protected forests.
- Three of these new dams encroach on forests where REDD+ projects are currently operating, pitting “green” energy infrastructure against conservation goals.
- Residents living nearby one of the dam sites fear that history may repeat as hydropower dams have typically been used to illegally extract valuable timber.

French court greenlights lawsuit against EDF over wind farm in Mexico
- After more than three years of legal wrangling, a court in Paris has ruled that a civil case brought by Indigenous communities in Mexico against French energy giant EDF can go ahead.
- The case was filed by Zapotec communities in Oaxaca state, who complain that EDF’s Gunaa Sicarú wind farm project violates their land rights and lacks reasonable consultation with communities.
- The case against EDF was filed under the recently approved French Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law, designed to hold French companies accountable for abuses overseas.
- Projects that support the energy transition and climate change mitigation can stir local conflicts similar to those associated with fossil fuels if community rights are not properly considered, experts warn.

As wind, solar farms expand in Brazil, space for traditional communities shrinks
- A study published in Nature Sustainability shows that large swaths of land occupied by traditional communities in northeastern Brazil are being privatized by wind and solar power companies.
- According to organizations focused on the issue, the modus operandi of these companies is to use intermediate land grabbers and divide communities through intimidation.
- The rapid spread of renewable energy projects is funded by international investors and the public sector, which grants companies a range of tax and regulatory incentives.

Study: More than half of Australia’s clean energy mines lie on Indigenous land
- The global energy transition has increased demand for the minerals needed in the production of batteries, solar panels and other renewable energy technology.
- In a new study, researchers found that 57.8% of critical mineral projects in Australia lie within formally recognized Indigenous lands, or 79.2% if land subject to claims of native title that haven’t yet been determined are included.
- Historically, Australia’s First Nations haven’t received fair compensation or benefit sharing when investors have found resources in their territories, sources told Mongabay.
- The paper’s authors, Indigenous organizations and environmental campaigners say that critical mineral policies must consider the rights and interests of First Nations peoples throughout a project’s life cycle.

Sugarcane megaproject poses latest threat to Papua’s forests, communities
- Activists have warned of wide-ranging environmental and social impacts from a plan to establish 2 million hectares (nearly 5 million acres) of sugarcane plantations in Merauke district, in Indonesia’s Papua region.
- The plan calls for deforesting an area six times the size of Jakarta, even as the government touts the green credentials of the project in the form of the bioethanol that it plans to produce from the sugar.
- Activists have also warned that the project risks becoming yet another land grab that deprives Indigenous Papuans of their customary lands and rights without fair compensation.
- They add the warning signs are all there, including close parallels to similarly ambitious projects that failed, the alleged involvement of palm oil firms, and government insistences that this richly forested region of Indonesia doesn’t have much forest left.

Weak banking regulations leave two-thirds of Amazon vulnerable to oil and gas
- A joint investigation by several conservation groups looked at more than 560 financial transactions involving more than 280 banks and 80 oil and gas companies with activities in the Amazon.
- It concluded that what the banks claim to be doing for the environment is far different from the “true impacts of their policies.”
- Some of the biggest bankrollers of oil and gas (Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco, Santander, Bank of America) only apply their policies to about a third of the rainforest, leaving the rest vulnerable to potential environmental destruction.
- The report said banks need to end their relationships with all oil and gas companies in the Amazon if countries in the region are going to protect 80% of the rainforest by 2025.

Indigenous communities make clean energy drive work for, not against, them
- Indigenous peoples have been steadily warning about the impacts of renewable energy development on their lands and communities, but some see a way to harness this trend for the positive.
- Experts say Indigenous communities can play a leading role in the clean energy transition through partnerships that allow them to produce and benefit from renewable energy projects.
- In Canada, policy initiatives like the feed-in tariff program in Ontario province have encouraged Indigenous participation in renewable energy by providing incentives for Indigenous ownership in projects, making them a growing shareholder in Canada’s clean energy transition.
- While there are examples to be taken from Canada’s approach, barriers remain, including limited capacity within communities, access to capital, and governance structures supporting such partnerships.

Pressure grows on banks to end business with Indonesian coal giant Adaro
- Pressure groups are mounting a campaign to get international lenders to stop doing business with Adaro, one of Indonesia’s biggest coal companies, citing its lack of a credible plan to transition away from the fossil fuel.
- Adaro says it’s committed to a clean-energy transition and a net-zero emissions target, but this is contradicted by its actions, according to an online petition signed by more than 32,000 people.
- The company has significantly increased its production of metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, and failed to decrease its output of thermal coal, used in power plants, despite committing to the latter.
- The company has already been shunned by major banks such as BNP Paribas and DBS, while a deal to supply “green” aluminum to Hyundai fell through after it emerged that the smelter producing the aluminum would be powered by coal.

Cutting forests for solar energy ‘misses the plot’ on climate action (commentary)
- In many places, solar power projects are being sited on natural forestlands, even in America’s greenest state, Vermont. This ignores the fact that natural forests are key climate solutions, and also studies which indicate solar projects are best sited in abandoned industrial site, above parking lots, and on warehouse roofs.
- In the latest example, an industrial solar project is proposed to replace a tract of forest in Shaftsbury, in the southwestern corner of the Green Mountain State, despite community opposition.
- “Because climate change has been framed as an energy problem that can be solved with solar panels, well-meaning legislators have crafted incentives that [are] exploited by out-of-state investment firms like the one holding an axe over our trees,” a new op-ed explains.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Green credentials of electric vehicles come under fire
- Electric vehicles are often presented as a key technology for drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions, thus helping curb climate change.
- But manufacturing electric cars requires the mining of critical minerals for batteries, like lithium and cobalt, that are largely sourced in developing countries. Local traditional and Indigenous communities say the mining is already harming their way of life, is polluting, and damaging biodiversity.
- The rush to embrace EVs, say scientists, runs the risk of trying to find a silver-bullet solution to one planetary boundary crisis (global warming) by violating other equally important existential boundaries, including biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater use, and novel entity (air and water pollution).
- Analysts say a far better way to tackle the global environmental polycrisis is by reducing overall resource consumption. New technology is not enough, by itself. To make life on the planet truly sustainable, humanity must alter lifestyles, redesigning societies to use less, while preserving quality of life for all.

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