Berlin, 24.11.2025: A background paper published today by the Berlin-based environmental and human rights organization PowerShift shows: The mining of metallic raw materials in the Brazilian Amazon region exemplifies the contradictions of global climate policy. While governments around the world are relying on decarbonization, the demand for metals such as aluminum, iron and copper is constantly growing. This has serious consequences for people, the environment and the global climate.
Exceeding the 1.5-degree limit in 2024, as well as the first climate tipping point reached in 2025, illustrate the urgency of a real transformation. Nevertheless, only a small part of the world's mined metals flows into technologies for the energy transition. Most of them end up in conventional industrial production. At the same time, mining is expanding in ecologically highly sensitive areas such as the Amazon, a region of global importance for biodiversity and climate protection.
The background paper explains in detail how mining projects threaten indigenous and traditional communities, destroy forests and pollute rivers. It also shows that the infrastructure needed for mining, processing and export also has massive environmental and social impacts. The raw materials extracted in Brazil reach Germany and Europe via international supply chains. They are in vehicles, infrastructure and consumer goods.
Constantin Bittner, Coordinator of the Working Group on Raw Materials at PowerShift, comments:
“In order to pursue genuine climate action and enable a globally just energy transition, we need to address the question of where the necessary raw materials come from, the circumstances in which they are mined and the impact of mining and processing on people living there. The growing mining of metallic raw materials, which mining companies are increasingly justifying with the solution of the climate crisis, is destroying habitats and ecosystems – although only a small part actually flows into technologies of the energy transition. The majority continue to end up in conventional industrial production. A globally just energy transition and effective climate protection can therefore only succeed if they are also consistently combined with a comprehensive raw material transition.”
The strong protest of indigenous and traditional communities in the context of COP30 in Belém has once again shown how closely linked raw material extraction, human rights and climate protection are. Given their high demand for raw materials, Germany and the EU have a particular responsibility to sustainably improve the situation on the ground. The background paper provides key findings and policy recommendations.
The entire publication, which PowerShift has published today together with the Research and Documentation Center Chile-Latin America e.V. and Cooperation Brazil e.V., can be found here: https://power-shift.de/bergbau-brasilien-erz-gesucht-amazonas-verloren/
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact:
- Constantin Bittner, Coordinator of the AK Raw Materials at PowerShift, constantin.bittner@power-shift.de, +49 (0)30 419 341 82
Adrian Bornmann, Public Relations Officer at PowerShift, adrian.bornmann@power-shift.de, +49 (0)30-27590497
