King's College London

Justice in Critical Minerals Governance and Energy Transitions is a four-year UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (2025-2029) examining how justice is understood and negotiated in the global transition to net-zero emissions.

Disputes over social, environmental, and distributional justice are increasingly shaping this transition. These tensions contribute to policy delays, community resistance, and supply chain disruptions, particularly around lithium and other critical minerals. At their core are disagreements over what “justice” means and how it should be realised.

A new approach

The project pioneers Hermeneutical Ethnography, an innovative methodology that analyses how people express meaning through speech, silences, symbols, and storytelling. This approach addresses gaps between top-down policy frameworks and the lived realities of mining-affected communities.

Using case studies in Australia, Chile, and Ghana, the project generates interdisciplinary insights and co-creates knowledge with communities and stakeholders, ensuring that perspectives often excluded from policy design are central to the research.

What the project delivers

• A bottom-up justice framework for energy transitions
• New interdisciplinary datasets on mining and community experiences
• Evidence to inform policymakers and global institutions
• Strategic partnerships supporting the post-2030 sustainable development agenda

Together, these outputs aim to support more equitable, resilient, and sustainable energy transitions worldwide.

Aims

The project seeks to transform how justice is integrated into energy transitions by developing a community-centred knowledge system. It explores how people in mining regions interpret and experience justice, capturing voices and expressions often missing from policy debates.

The goal is to produce a practical framework that guides governments, industry, and international organisations in making fairer decisions beyond the 2030 SDGs.

Methods

Hermeneutical Ethnography

The project combines interpretive analysis with immersive fieldwork to understand justice as lived experience.

Data collected includes:

• Voices: interviews, stories, media, protests, speeches
• Silences: absences, taboos, and withheld perspectives
• Symbols: rituals, gestures, practices, art
• Context: histories, politics, relationships, and livelihoods

How it works:

• Community immersion and trust-building
• In-person and digital observation
• Collaborative interpretation with participants
• Cross-country comparison
• Partnership-driven knowledge creation
• Framework development

Why it matters

By focusing on everyday experiences rather than formal consultations, this approach reveals overlooked perspectives and strengthens community agency. It produces context-sensitive evidence that supports more trusted and inclusive governance of energy transitions.

Partners

• Centre for Environmental Governance, University of Canberra, Australia
• Institute for Ecology and Biodiversity, University of Concepción, Chile
• Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon
• Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Government of Ghana

Media from the project launch event

On 3 March 2026 at Bush House, the launch event for the Justice in CMGnET project was held.

Watch the introduction to the launch of the FLF project

Watch the launch event's panel discussion on the methodology of the FLF project