The Great Green Grab: Climate Extractivism and the New Resource Imperialism

A powerful critique of the Global North's resource-hungry 'green transition', calling for a fundamental overhaul of our profit-driven, exploitative world order. The spiralling climate crisis demands a rapid shift away from fossil fuels.But most current approaches to decarbonisation rely on a dramatic expansion of resource extraction--exacerbating environmental degradation and deepening global inequalities.This is the paradox of the so-called green transition. Philippe Le Billon offers a critical examination of the material and political underpinnings of climate change mitigation.Drawing on insights from political ecology, critical geography and environmental justice, he interrogates the rise of 'climate extractivism': the opening up of new resource frontiers and the construction of infrastructure megaprojects in the name of sustainability.From artisanal cobalt mining in the DRC to rare-earth geopolitics, and from biofuel plantations to deep-sea and space mining, he reveals how green gr