- Convenors:
-
Raquel Neyra
(UNALM)
Joan Martinez Alier (ICTA UAB)
- Discussants:
-
Arpita Bisht
(Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona)
Grettel Navas (University of Chile)
Marcel Llavero Pasquina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
- Format:
- Panel
Format/Structure
Convenors and discussants will present each a paper, Marcel Llavero-Pasquina too.
Long Abstract
This panel builds on previous EJAtlas work on the Vale company, Impregilo-Salini, Total Energies, and the Zijin metal mining company, focusing on the difficulties that such companies face when confronted by socio-environmental protestors. In 2026, the EJAtlas group will add other monographic articles on the Glencore metal company, the Holcim-Lafarge cement company, and other extractivist companies from different countries. The articles draw on the EJAtlas entries on extractivist companies and their socio-environmental liabilities and conflicts in all continents. Extractivist transnational companies have a crucial role in the geographical transfers of low-entropy energy, materials, and also human labor-time imported from the Peripheries to sustain the metabolism of the industrialized Cores. Their socio-environmental liabilities must be assessed in an analytical framework of comparative business ecological economics and political ecology. Based on empirical examples, we study the distance between ESG reports and the realities of Corporate Social Irresponsibility of companies whose actions damage the environment and violate human rights. In this sense, we will examine the impacts of corporate decisions on the environment and affected populations and the resistance from local communities, triggered particularly by water allocation, land grabbing, and natural resource extraction. We include important companies active across the world at the frontiers of commodity extraction and waste disposal of fossil fuels, hydroelectricity, solar energies, biomass, metals including those whose demand increases with the energy transition), sand, gravel, limestone for the cement industry etc.
Accepted papers
Presentation short abstract
Analyzing 32 environmental conflicts from the EJAtlas linked to Monsanto–Bayer, this paper reveals structural power asymmetries in global agribusiness and advances “slow justice” as a political-ecological framework to counter corporate impunity and the normalization of slow violence.
Presentation long abstract
In 2016, the “Monsanto Tribunal” became a landmark act of transnational civil society resistance. Although symbolic and without legal authority, it filled the void left by institutions unwilling to confront the ecological and human harms caused by Monsanto. Farmers, scientists, and activists from multiple continents testified about toxic exposures (especially glyphosate), land dispossession, biodiversity loss, and violations of health and food sovereignty. In 2017, international judges concluded that Monsanto’s practices could constitute ecocide and called for stronger mechanisms of corporate accountability in international law. In 2018, Bayer acquired Monsanto and retired its name—yet not its practices nor their consequences—illustrating how corporations adapt by merging, rebranding, and shifting responsibility while affected communities continue to wait. According to the EJAtlas, 32 cases across 24 countries are linked to Monsanto–Bayer. These conflicts reveal a global pattern of agribusiness expansion through monocultures, GMOs, intensive food production, and livestock systems—present in 17 cases. GMOs also appear in 17 cases, reflecting tensions around farmer autonomy. Agrotoxics appear in 11 cases, biopiracy in 8, and deforestation in 6, exposing slow poisoning and ecological destruction. This paper qualitatively analyses these 32 cases to show how Monsanto–Bayer’s practices generate environmental conflicts and how communities demand health, land, biodiversity, self-determination, and justice. I argue that these cases reveal structural power asymmetries, where agribusiness profits rely on diffused, unpunished harm. I advance “slow justice” as a political-ecological counterpoint to “slow violence,” highlighting how justice is deliberately delayed through legal loopholes, trade agreements, corporate lobbying, and manufactured scientific doubt.
Presentation short abstract
This contribution presents a comprehensive overview of conflicts around the cement industry. It is based on a study of over 50 conflicts, representing more than 15 global cement players. The contribution will also present the case Holcim–one of the largest cement players in the world.
Presentation long abstract
Cement, or hydraulic cement (the major type of which is Portland Cement), is a binding agent used in the production of concrete and mortar. Portland cement was patented by Joseph Aspdin in 1824, and in the following decades, its production and applications expanded rapidly. The large-scale production of cement was quickly followed by the mass production of concrete, and soon after, in the mid 1800s with the invention of "reinforced concrete", the product began being used in the production of infrastructure projects. Today, concrete is by far the most dominant and critical construction material used across the world. This rock-like material has been a building block of post-WW2 built environment expansion globally, and has been identified as an important driver of Earth System transformations and a significant factor in ‘the Great Acceleration’. The global cement industry also has historically been one of the most cartelised industries founded upon early cartelisation within and between European countries; enforced dumping of cement into European colonies; and eventually the formation of major multinational corporations (which till date reflect the original cartel-based structure). This contribution presents a broad and comprehensive overview of conflicts around the cement industry. It is based on a study of over 50 conflicts across the world, representing more than 15 global cement players. The contribution will also present the case Holcim–one of the largest cement players in the world, in order to focus the discussions around the myriad causes of conflicts and contestations around cement production.
Presentation short abstract
The presentation will discuss newly emerging maritime Polar corridor and its associated extractive industries and international companies across colonized and melting Arctic territories, which render resources more accessible and strategically exploitable.
Presentation long abstract
This study employs a political ecology lens to analyze the interconnections between extractive and infrastructural developments, reported climate change impacts and the experiences of affected communities in socio-environmental conflicts along the Northern Sea-Polar Silk Road. The findings reveal a notable increase in infrastructure developments and areas of concentrated maritime traffic, including existing projects such as Yamal LNG or the newly emerging Vostok mega-carbon complex. This research offers critical insights into the intersections of climate change and infrastructure-led development corridors involving Russian, Indian and Chinese companies, with important implications for Indigenous Peoples and local environmental justice organizations. The results underscore the need to address the colonial dimensions of socio-environmental transformations, especially in the context of the climate crisis that is reshaping both the polar region and global systems. The paper also takes a critical look at claims about the viability of the Northern Sea Route development by both Russian and Chinese investments, claims that are traditionally used in maritime infrastructure and traffic growth studies in the Arctic region. Even with the possibility of project failures due to sanctions, investment shortfalls, deteriorating infrastructure, or harsh environmental conditions, the Russian Arctic persists as central geopolitical and economic frontier. Within this colonial-extractivist paradigm, extreme climate events are interpreted not as reasons for structural transformation, but as new investment opportunities in historically colonized Arctic territories.
Presentation short abstract
we analyze the socioenvironmental practices of Glencore recorded in the EJAtlas in the mining and hydrocarbons sector. Our hypothesis is that it does not comply with its CSR, and its enormous profits would not have been possible if it respected human and environmental rights
Presentation long abstract
Recent research on CSR in extractive companies such as Vale, Zijin, Total, and MMG demonstrates the contradictions between their companies' rhetoric and their practices, pointing out that CSR tends to serve as a tool for greenwashing and reveals many contradictions. We focus on one of the world's largest multinationals, Glencore, which controls a large part of the global mining and agro-industrial markets. Glencore is a company with a controversial past whose global expansion would not have been possible without lax Swiss tax legislation and a widely documented system of bribery and influence peddling. The company is expanding rapidly through acquisitions and mergers of companies that are financially attractive to it and its network of influence. We have selected some of the most representative environmental conflicts across the globe recorded in the EJAtlas, at least one per continent where possible. Glencore's conflicts and numerous heavy fines demonstrate the contradictory behavior of its CSR. We focus on conflicts in the hydrocarbon and mining sectors where Glencore's actions have been most fragrant. We analyze the actions of the company, governments, and populations as well as the CEO's speech. We analyze Glencore's CSR, putting forward the hypothesis that it fails to comply with its principles in the face of multiple conflicts, including deadly ones, and that the enormous profits generated by the company throughout its existence would not have been possible if it had truly respected human rights, labor rights, and the environment.