Critically Green: Tracing the Geopolitical, Social and Environmental Footprints of Military Decarbonisation

The world's largest militaries are finally acknowledging a threat to all peoples and nations, which has no regard for borders or territories, economic or political interests: the climate crisis. Militaries contribute to the deepening crisis through their intensive use of fossil fuels and energy. Several global militaries and the wider defence sector have recently pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to support governments to achieve net zero.

These militaries aim to adopt low-carbon technologies, for example, to support the electrification of military bases. However, a shift to decarbonised militaries on this scale, will have knock-on environmental effects, often overlooked in national climate change policies. It will lead to increased demand for critical minerals used in low-carbon technologies, adding to geopolitical tensions over supply.

It is vital that we are properly informed about the impacts of critical mineral extraction, so that we can consider how to minimise negative consequences and increase the positive outcomes.

While emerging research has helped us understand the multi-layered issues that critical mineral extraction plays in other industrial sectors, such as energy and mobile technology, we still know very little about military use of critical minerals. We know even less about the unintended social and environmental consequences of their extensive global supply chains.

This research is designed to change that. We will examine the social and environmental footprint of critical mineral extraction for defence purposes, so that companies, policymakers and local communities have the information to consider different approaches to decarbonisation. Our aim is to explore the socio-environmental trade-offs of different supply chains and the unique climate-security and geopolitical challenges facing the defence sector.

In this project, we will examine the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD) use of critical minerals, and different sourcing options. Specifically, we will analyse the geopolitical, economic, and socio-environmental trade-offs in military extraction of lithium and graphite. We will examine impacts at three sites: an offshore Graphite mine sites, Vatomina and Sahamamy, in Madagascar; a domestic lithium mine in Penryn, Cornwall, UK; and a critical mineral recycling company in Tavistock, Devon, UK.

These sites are in areas of high biodiversity, with local populations that rely on local natural resources. They will enable us to compare different approaches to mineral sourcing in the UK and abroad.

We will work directly with the MoD, mineral companies, civil society groups, policymakers and local communities, using a mix of research methods. We will develop new ways of understanding the environmental impacts of military operations. This includes a novel Material Flow Analysis and Social Life Cycle Analysis, which will enable us to follow the critical minerals from their source to their finished military products, tracing their social and environmental impacts along the way.

We will use these findings to pinpoint 'hotspots' of carbon emissions and social and environmental impacts, such as water pollution, deforestation and population displacement. We will also interview mine operators, workers and local community members to deepen our understanding of socio-environmental impacts.

Throughout the research, policymakers and defence officials will be able to access our emerging findings on a user-friendly, open-source datalab. This will show where critical minerals are sourced, and their environmental and social footprints. We will ensure that insights from the datalab inform decarbonisation policy by engaging with the MoD and policymakers to review the significance of data for defence procurement strategy.