Countries across the globe are working to mitigate and adapt to the social and environmental impacts of climate change through infrastructural development that depends on the production of natural resources like copper, lithium, cobalt, iron, and nickel. Yet mining these metals also causes social and environmental impacts in extractive areas, which are often on or nearby Indigenous lands. The MCE Program grapples with these contradictions through rigorous research and public outreach with stakeholders, such as community organizations, mining companies, governments, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs.
Program efforts are oriented around three main branches of environmental solutions:
Produce the metals needed for the clean energy transition. natural carbon sinks and biodiversity.
Reduce the environmental and social harms of mining.
Advance the circular economy and other natural resource solutions.
Explore our other research.