Presentation short abstract

Renewable energy expansion in the Global North relies on neocolonial appropriation of resources from the Global South. Using environmentally extended input-output analysis (1990–2024), the study examines North-South offshored footprints in the context of electricity generation and critical minerals.

Presentation long abstract

Under the energy transition banner, renewable energy expansion is framed as a response to the climate crisis. This expansion, however, boosts the demand for critical minerals and electricity. Especially in countries of the Global South, the intensification of extraction and export of minerals related to renewable energy technologies has been described as ‘green colonialism’ or ‘green extractivism’. Combining socio-metabolic research and political economy, our work examines how renewable energy expansion in the Global North relies on neocolonial appropriation of resources from the Global South. Based on an environmentally extended input-output approach, we analyse ‘footprints’ of electricity and consumer goods demand between 1990-2024, considering material resource extraction, energy use, emissions, and labour, besides disparities in value added. We find that, all the footprints associated with final demand for electricity generation in the Global North sourced from the Global South exceeded those of the South sourced from the North. Also, for most of the energy transitions minerals, the resource footprint of the North is increasingly offshored to the South. We conclude that the green global division of labour reproduces patterns of ecologically unequal exchange, therefore efforts to address climate change and create globally just energy systems, must confront these structural inequities.