The Lithium Mirage: How the Green Energy Boom Is Recreating Colonial Economies in the Global South

By Haruki Ito, Jun. 25, 2025

The global transition to renewable energy depends on lithium—the soft, silvery metal powering electric vehicles and grid batteries. Yet beneath the rhetoric of sustainability lies a new extraction economy strikingly similar to the one it claimed to replace. As the World Bank (2024) projects lithium demand to increase 950 percent by 2040, the so-called “white gold rush” in Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina—collectively known as the Lithium Triangle—is exposing a paradox: the world’s clean future runs on dirty inequality.

The Geography of Extraction

The Lithium Triangle holds over 60 percent of known global reserves, but the profits flow elsewhere. In 2024, Bolivia’s Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) earned US$1.1 billion, yet over 80 percent of refining and battery manufacturing remains controlled by Chinese, U.S., and South Korean corporations. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that producer countries capture less than 5 percent of the total lithium value chain.

This spatial inequality mirrors 19th-century resource imperialism. The Lithium Triangle exports raw brine and imports finished batteries—extracting environmental damage while outsourcing technological profit.

The Water Crisis Beneath the Salt Flats

Each ton of lithium extracted from brine requires 2.2 million liters of water. In Chile’s Atacama Desert—one of the driest places on Earth—indigenous communities report groundwater levels dropping 40 centimeters per year. Satellite data from NASA’s Earth Observatory (2024) confirms a 30 percent reduction in nearby wetlands since industrial extraction began.

Companies tout “green mining,” yet evaporation ponds stretch across 60 square kilometers of salt plains, displacing flamingo habitats and pastoral livelihoods. For the Quechua and Aymara peoples, lithium’s promise of a decarbonized planet feels like déjà vu: once silver, now lithium—different mineral, same marginalization.

The Politics of Resource Nationalism

Governments are fighting back. In 2023, Chile announced a National Lithium Strategy mandating majority state ownership in new projects. Bolivia requires joint ventures with YLB for all foreign investors. But capacity gaps remain: neither nation possesses large-scale cathode manufacturing infrastructure. Resource nationalism without technological sovereignty risks becoming symbolic protectionism.

Meanwhile, global investors hedge through “green colonialism.” Companies like CATL and Tesla secure long-term supply contracts that fix export prices below global market rates, ensuring profit stability for buyers and dependency for suppliers.

Environmental Justice and the Energy Transition

The climate movement’s moral calculus often omits its own material footprint. Lithium is the new oil not only because it fuels mobility but because it perpetuates geopolitical asymmetry. As UNCTAD’s 2024 Commodity Report argues, the decarbonization agenda risks “recarbonizing inequality.”

True sustainability requires value retention at the source—through local refining, battery assembly, and research ecosystems. The African Battery Initiative (ABI) offers a template, integrating mining with regional manufacturing in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. A “Lithium OPEC” proposed by Latin American nations could similarly negotiate fair pricing and environmental standards.

Toward Ethical Electrification

The energy transition cannot replicate the colonial patterns it seeks to transcend. Global carbon neutrality must be matched by justice neutrality—a world where the cost of sustainability is not borne by those least responsible for climate change.

The lithium boom, if left unchecked, will not save the planet; it will simply redraw its frontiers of exploitation.

Works Cited

“Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024.” International Energy Agency (IEA), 2024. https://www.iea.org

 “Commodity Dependence and Inequality.” United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 2024. https://unctad.org

 “NASA Earth Observatory Report: Lithium Mining in the Atacama.” NASA Earth Science Division, 2024. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

 “National Lithium Strategy 2023.” Government of Chile, Ministry of Mining, 2023. https://minmineria.gob.cl

 “YLB Annual Report 2024.” Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB), 2024. https://ylb.gob.bo

 “African Battery Initiative Report.” African Union Commission on Energy and Mining, 2024. https://au.int

 “Global Lithium Market Review.” BloombergNEF (BNEF), 2024. https://about.bnef.com

 “Environmental Impacts of Lithium Extraction.” World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Latin America, 2024. https://wwf.org

 “Decarbonization and Inequality.” UN Development Programme (UNDP), 2024. https://undp.org

 “Supply Chain Geopolitics in the Energy Transition.” Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center, 2024. https://hks.harvard.edu