The energy transition fostered by the European Green Deal is presented as a win-win pathway to combat climate change and sustain economic growth through the deployment of low-carbon technologies (European Commission, 2019). However, the energy transition is a materials transition. Starting from supply of raw materials for technology manufacture, EU demand for rare earth metals is projected to grow six-fold by 2030 and seven-fold by 2050 compared to 2020, reaching over 3 million tonnes in a low-demand scenario and nearly 5 million tonnes in a high-demand scenario (Carrara et al., 2023).

While replacing a fossil-based energy system with a renewables-based one is a necessity and a historical responsibility for the EU, the push to secure resources for the European Green Deal remains rooted in a neoliberal capitalist logic of climate reductionism, prioritising CO2 emissions while overlooking deeper socio-ecological injustices.

Considering that

• mineral extraction comes with severe environmental, social, and health impacts;

• more than 90% of the current raw material supply to Europe comes from outside the Eurozone (European Parliament and Council, 2024);

• more than half of the Strategic Partners for Raw Materials are Europe ex-colonies (Raw Materials Diplomacy, n.d.);

• more than half of energy transition mineral projects are located on or near Indigenous People’s lands (Owen et al., 2022);

We conclude that the EU is transitioning towards a green economy relying on an extractivist model1, and is systematically externalising the costs of the green transition outside of Europe, as well as to its ‘peripheries’2. With this resolution, we aim to amplify the demands of movements who have been resisting this exploitative model inside and outside of Europe.

Recognising the myriad of resistance movements, we want to bring to attention a few examples. Indigenous Peoples in northern Argentina are resisting lithium mining, challenging green extractivism driven by the Global North’s energy transition (Argento & Puente, 2023). The "lithium triangle" (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile) supplies about 85% of the EU’s lithium imports (Murguia & Obaya, 2024), with extraction encroaching on Indigenous lands and protected areas. Lithium mining generates waste, alters landscapes, contaminates water, and harms local ecosystems. Most critically, its high-water consumption worsens scarcity in arid regions, threatening subsistence farming and pastoralism (Voskoboynik & Andreucci, 2021).

West Papuan tribes, political groups, and civil and customary organisations continue to resist ongoing colonialism, human rights abuses (Amnesty International, 2021), genocidal violence (Brundige et al., 2003; United Liberation Movement for West Papua, 2023), and the extractive exploitation and ecocide of their ancestral lands (United Liberation Movement for West Papua, n.d.). Since 2016, Indonesia and the EU have negotiated the EU–Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), with pressure on Indonesia to lift raw mineral export restrictions and privatise its public energy sector, without consulting West Papuan Indigenous communities.

A new surge of violence in one of the world’s most war-torn regions has renewed attention to the historically overexploited peoples and territories of central Africa, particularly in eastern Congo (Global Conflict Tracker, 2025). This resource-rich area has been mined for centuries by Western companies and their subsidiaries. Congo produces 70% of the world’s cobalt, a key mineral for the batteries driving Europe’s energy transition. With over 200 ethnic groups, it is also one of the most ethnically diverse countries. Amnesty International and local reports document forced evictions, sexual violence, arson, and beatings linked to the expansion of multinational mining operations. These abuses disproportionately harm local communities, undermining their rights and livelihoods (Amnesty International, 2023). Meanwhile, the wealth generated largely leaves the country or is concentrated among a small elite. Though sustainable sourcing standards have been introduced, they are rarely enforced and remain riddled with loopholes (Deberdt & Le Billon, 2022).

This dynamic of dependency extends beyond the Global South: Europe’s peripheries, including poorer and rural regions within the EU, are also exploited to fuel growth in the core.

Serbia is witnessing a resurgence of green extractivism through the EU-backed push for lithium mining, despite widespread public resistance that previously halted such projects (Santos, 2024). Behind closed-door agreements and technocratic rhetoric, the government advances a top-down agenda that sidelines affected communities, undermines democratic participation, and replicates authoritarian patterns of resource exploitation (Markovic, 2024). In Portugal, the green transition is enabling a new wave of extractivism, with lithium mining projects threatening ecologically rich and culturally significant rural areas. Backed by climate and innovation discourses, these projects sideline local opposition and endanger traditional livelihoods. In Covas do Barroso, plans for Europe’s largest open-pit lithium mine threaten community displacement and ecosystem destruction (EJAtlas, n.d.). The grassroots movement Unidxs em Defesa de Covas do Barroso is actively resisting this green extractivism, defending a vision of territory grounded in care, heritage, and ecological interdependence (Antonelli & Sini, 2024).

Thus, concerned that

• a greening and security discourse in the European transition agenda hides its reliance on resource appropriation from the Global South and the peripheries of Europe;

• mineral extraction is framed as essential for and compatible with sustainable development and climate change mitigation;

• only 5 Member States of the EU have ratified the ILO169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, protecting the rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, including the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent to their relocation;

• the Critical Raw Materials Act limits the rights of Indigenous peoples and communities affected by extraction projects to consultations, ignoring the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent;

• current trade agreements impose an unsustainable neo-liberal European model of development based on infinite economic growth, privatisation of public sectors, nature commodification, and primacy of European import desires over local and national needs and affected communities’ rights, while also displacing and disregarding non-Eurocentric knowledge systems and worldviews;

Emphasising again the arguments made in previous FYEG resolutions “Indigenous rights are human rights!”, and “A Degrowth Transition Towards Post-Growth Economies” and in FYEG’s political platform that

• All trade agreements by the EU and by European countries must respect the rights of the indigenous communities directly or indirectly affected in the counterpart and possibly in neighbouring states. This must entail respect for ILO Convention 169 alongside core human rights conventions. Furthermore, these indigenous communities must be consulted and represented in the discussions and evaluation of the agreement either by a representative or, where possible, a collective or council representing them;

• The devastation caused by neoliberal capitalism cannot be solved by the same expansionist principles with a green facade. A global political perspective is essential to address ecological injustices and the unequal distribution of impacts. This includes ending resource appropriation from the Global South by the Global North and debt cancellation, alongside urgent decarbonization by countries with the greatest historical emissions.

• Degrowth is a demand for effective decolonization. Countries in the global south should be free to organise their resources and labour around meeting human needs rather than around servicing Northern growth.

We as FYEG call upon

• the EU to question and move beyond a development model based on infinite economic growth, privatisation of commons, nature commodification, and thus extractivism;

• the EU to recognise and interact with different, non-extractive ways of relating to nature stemming from non-Eurocentric worldviews;

• the Greens/EFA to recognise the systemic plunder of resources from the Global South and the peripheries of Europe that is still being promoted by the European energy transition and recognise its unequal distribution of costs and benefits;

• the Greens/EFA to support the demands of resistance and grassroot movements such as those in West Papua, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Serbia and Portugal;

• Member States to address historical injustices by attending and committing to demands of redistribution and reparation;

• all Member States to ratify the ILO169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention;

• the European Commission to integrate the principles of Free, Prior and Informed consent for Indigenous and other affected communities into every trade agreement negotiation with external partners.

Footnotes and references

¹ Extractivism is a model of overexploitation where local communities and environments bear the damage without benefitting, leading to ecosystem depletion, harm to human health, and the erosion of knowledge through structural violence, particularly dispossession (Ojeda et al., 2022). It refers to labour appropriation through exploitative economic, social, and ecological relations, rooted in colonial legacies, rather than small-scale mining practices (Bruna, 2022).

² The core–periphery model of imperialism explains how wealth, power, and resources are concentrated in dominant “core” countries, while “peripheral” ones are kept economically dependent, exploited for raw materials and labour, and structurally blocked from equal development.

Amnesty International. (2021, June 1). Indonesia: Civil and political rights’ violations In Papua and West Papua: List of issues prior to reporting (LOIPR) for Indonesia CCPR Session 129, June-July 2020 - Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa21/2445/2020/en/

Antonelli, D., & Sini, G. (2024, February 27). Covas do Barroso: Local Resistance to Europe’s Lithium Race. Green European Journal. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/covas-do-barroso-local-resistance-to-europes-lithium-race/

Argento, M., & Puente, F. (2023, August 16). A Cross-Sectoral Uprising against Extractivism. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/50891/a-cross-sectoral-uprising-against-extractivism

Bruna, N. (2022). A climate-smart world and the rise of Green Extractivism. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 49(4), 839–864. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2070482

Brundige, E., King, W., Vahali, P., Vladeck, S., Yuan, X., Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, & Yale Law School. (2003). Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control. Allard K Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School.

Carrara, S., Bobba, S., Blagoeva, D., Alves, D. P., Cavalli, A., Georgitzikis, K., Grohol, M., Itul, A., Kuzov, T., Latunussa, C., Lyons, L., Malano, G., Maury, T., Prior, A. A., Somers, J., Telsnig, T., Veeh, C., Wittmer, D., Black, C., . . . Christou, M. (2023). Supply chain analysis and material demand forecast in strategic technologies and sectors in the EU – A foresight study. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/386650

Deberdt, R., & Le Billon, P. (2022). The Green Transition in Context—Cobalt Responsible Sourcing for Battery Manufacturing. Society & Natural Resources, 35(7), 784–803. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2022.2049410

EJAtlas. (n.d.). EJAtlas - Global Atlas of Environmental Justice. Retrieved March 10, 2025, from https://ejatlas.org/

European Commission. (2019). Communication From The Commission To The European Parliament, The European Council, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions: The European Green Deal. In EUR-Lex. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:b828d165-1c22-11ea-8c1f-01aa75ed71a1.0002.02/DOC_1&format=PDF

European Parliament and Council. (2024). Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations (EU) No 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1724 and (EU) 2019/1020. In EUR-lex. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202401252

Global Conflict Tracker (2025). Violence Democratic Republic Congo.https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo

Markovic, I. (2024). The South of the North: Green extractivism in the energy transition policies of the European Union toward the European periphery. University of Sussex.

Murguia, D., & Obaya, M. (2024). Exploring conditions for just lithium mining in South America. The case of the EU responsible sourcing strategy. Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad948d

Owen, J. R., Kemp, D., Lechner, A. M., Harris, J., Zhang, R., & Lèbre, É. (2022). Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples. Nature Sustainability, 6(2), 203–211. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00994-6

Raw materials diplomacy. (n.d.). European Commission. https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/raw-materials-diplomacy_en

Santos, S. F. (2024, August 11). Serbia: Thousands join Belgrade protest against lithium mining. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cged9qgwrvyo

United Liberation Movement for West Papua. (2023, November 17). Genocide is happening in West Papua. https://www.ulmwp.org/benny-wenda-genocide-is-happening-in-west-papua#start

United Liberation Movement for West Papua. (n.d.). Green State Vision. https://greenstatevision.info/

Voskoboynik, D. M., & Andreucci, D. (2021). Greening extractivism: Environmental discourses and resource governance in the ‘Lithium Triangle.’ Environment and Planning. E, Nature and Space, 5(2), 787–809. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486211006345

The Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) expresses its deepest concern and condemnation of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, especially in the Gaza Strip, and the broader humanitarian and political catastrophe. As the youth wing of the European Green Party and an organisation committed to climate justice, decoloniality, feminism, non-violence, anti-racism and -fascism, we cannot remain silent in the face of such clear and devastating injustice.

We denounce the international community's failure to intervene effectively to stop Israel's assault on Gaza, the West-Bank, and neighbouring countries, and we oppose the continued support that Israel receives from the European Union, the United States, and other states through arms deals, diplomatic cover, and financial assistance. This resolution articulates FYEG’s firm anti-imperialist, decolonial position on this situation in the Middle-East.

The Occupation and Humanitarian Crisis

Since October 2023, Israel has dramatically escalated its military operations in Gaza. As of May 2025, over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, and tens of thousands more injured or unaccounted for, many buried under rubble. Most of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced multiple times. Hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and UN-run facilities have been deliberately bombed. Israel's restriction on aid access has created famine conditions in northern Gaza and critical shortages elsewhere. Water is undrinkable. Electricity is cut. Fuel for hospitals is blocked. In addition at least 408 aid workers have been killed — often in clearly marked convoys. The siege is total.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in its advisory opinion that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal under international law. The ICJ emphasised Israel’s responsibility as an occupying power to ensure the welfare of the occupied population, which Israel is failing to uphold. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented indiscriminate bombing, enforced displacement, and intentional destruction of civilian infrastructure and the environment.

The systematic denial of food, water, and medical care — combined with incitement to violence by Israeli officials and the continued bombardment of areas even after civilians were ordered to evacuate there — demonstrates genocidal intent. Under Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention, creating conditions calculated to destroy a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group constitutes genocide.

Amnesty International’s 2024 report confirms deliberate attacks on civilian areas. The destruction of entire neighbourhoods, use of white phosphorus, targeted killings of journalists, and the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s infrastructure all contribute to the destruction of Palestinian life and future. Pink-washing to justify oppression by Israel must also be denounced, as it attempts to frame colonial violence as “progressive.”

We recognise the legitimate right of oppressed people to resist. At the same time, we reaffirm our non-violent principles and condemn all violations of international humanitarian law — including the targeting of civilians, taking of hostages, and acts of gender-based violence committed by any party.

A Framework for Just Peace

As young greens and anti-colonial activists, we reject any narrative that frames this genocide as a symmetrical conflict. It is not. It is the brutal oppression of a colonized people by a militarized and internationally backed occupying power. The ongoing genocide and occupation cannot be resolved by merely ending overt acts of violence—whether bombings, starvation, or obstruction of aid. A meaningful resolution must address the structural imbalance between Israel as the colonizing power and Palestine as the colonized population.

The path forward requires acknowledging the power asymmetry between the coloniser and the colonised. Palestinians do not have a standing army, state infrastructure, or freedom of movement. In contrast, Israel possesses overwhelming military force, nuclear weapons, and enjoys full diplomatic and economic support from major Western powers. Any peace process that ignores this imbalance will only reproduce violence.

Therefore, a truly just and sustainable peace cannot be built on colonial foundations. The so-called “two-state solution” has been used as a rhetorical shield by the international community while Israel entrenches control through settlements, apartheid, and military occupation. It is no longer viable — if it ever was — and simply reinforces colonial logic that privileges state sovereignty over people’s lived realities.

The current de facto reality is an apartheid regime under Israel’s control, where Palestinians are denied equal rights, freedom of movement, and access to resources. Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and within Israel itself live under various forms of control, dispossession, and structural violence. The Israeli government has enshrined Jewish supremacy in its legal frameworks, consolidating an apartheid system as documented by B’Tselem, Amnesty, and Human Rights Watch.

We therefore call for a single, democratic, secular state in historic Palestine — from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea — where eventually all people, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, enjoy equal rights. A unified state must guarantee the right of return for Palestinian refugees as enshrined in UN Resolution 194, dismantle all forms of apartheid, and institute full legal and political equality.

This vision demands demilitarisation, restorative justice, and reparations. We reject attempts to “normalise” the occupation through economic integration, humanitarian band-aids, or security guarantees for the occupier while the occupied are caged. Peace cannot mean the silencing of the oppressed. It must mean liberation.

Final Remarks

FYEG reaffirms its commitment to a decolonial, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and feminist approach to international justice. Our values compel us to speak out against genocide, apartheid, and settler colonialism wherever they occur.

We reject narratives of “both sides” that obscure the reality of occupation and genocide. There is no symmetry between an occupying military power and a stateless, colonised people. Legality, especially when shaped by colonial powers, cannot replace morality. Throughout history, laws have upheld slavery, apartheid, and occupation. Justice must come from the people.

Ending Israel’s assault on Gaza is only the first step. We must address the root causes of the conflict: settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and global complicity. Palestinians are not victims of a natural disaster. They are being deliberately targeted by a state that enjoys international impunity.

We stand with Palestinian, Jewish, and international voices of conscience who demand liberation, safety, and dignity for all.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever.

FYEG Calls Upon:

The International Community to:

• Recognise the situation in Palestine as a genocide.

• End all military, economic, material, intelligence, and diplomatic support for Israel.

• Reinstate and fully fund UNRWA and ensure protection of all aid workers.

• Comply with and support ICC and ICJ processes, including arrest warrants for Israeli officials accused of war crimes.

• Protect the rights of pro-Palestinian protestors and civil society actors worldwide.

• Ban Israel from international platforms such as Eurovision, FIFA, and UEFA.

• Ban NGOs and foundations that support Israeli settlements or apartheid.

• Support Palestinian resistance and civil society without reducing it to “terrorism.”

• Reject the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which conflates legitimate criticism of Israel with hate speech; adopt the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.

The European Green Party and Other Political Parties to:

• Publicly name and condemn the genocide in Gaza.

• Demand an arms embargo on Israel and enforce boycotts of companies complicit in occupation, in line with BDS principles.

• Oppose EU-Israel trade agreements and association deals.

• Advocate for Palestinian right of return and a decolonial peace framework.

• Pressure member states to halt any cooperation with Israel’s military-industrial complex.

The European Union and Member States to:

• Recognise Palestine as a sovereign state.

• Launch infringement procedures against member states violating international law.

• Fund reparations, reconstruction, and trauma recovery programs for Gaza.

• Legislate against illegal Israeli settlement goods and invest in Palestinian civil infrastructure.

• Support Palestinian education, cultural preservation, and environmental sovereignty.

• Condemn Israeli attacks on press freedom, education, and cultural heritage.

The State of Israel to:

• Immediately cease all military operations in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

• End the siege on Gaza and allow unrestricted humanitarian access.

• Halt settlement expansion and dismantle all illegal outposts.

• Stop all forms of pinkwashing and instrumentalisation of feminism and LGBTQ+ rights to justify occupation.

• Cooperate fully with ICC, ICJ, and UN investigative bodies.

• Release all unlawfully imprisoned Palestinians.

• Allow displaced Palestinians to return and provide reparations.

• Cooperate with global actors pursuing justice and peace through decolonial frameworks.

Palestinian Leadership and Resistance Movements to:

• Uphold international humanitarian law and end attacks on civilians.

• Release hostages with dignity and medical care.

• Eliminate gender-based violence in all forms.

• Ensure aid reaches all civilians regardless of factional lines.

• Cooperate with global actors pursuing justice and peace through decolonial frameworks.

As the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), we stand for a united, fair, and inclusive Europe. As Green youth, we envision a Europe where everyone is empowered to take part in shaping society, and where all voices—especially those historically marginalised—are heard in the decision-making process. We envision a Europe where care is at the centre of our societies, economies, and politics. We foster this vision by engaging in dialogue about the issues that matter to us, even when those conversations are difficult or uncomfortable. These moments of reflection and disagreement are not weaknesses, but strengths. They make us more resilient, more united, and more capable of building a green, caring, and youth-led future.

To truly embody the values we promote, we must also hold ourselves to the same values we expect of the world around us. A truly caring and inclusive Europe starts with us. This means not only reflecting on what we stand for, but how we communicate, organise, and relate to one another within our movement.

As FYEG, we believe that creating inclusive spaces means making room for all forms of communication—especially those that prioritise care and collective growth. While as FYEG we already have procedures in place to ensure that all voices are equal, and that we pursue safe(r) spaces, we must recognise how certain hierarchies and forms of adversarial or competitive politics are easy to internalise from the context around us.

The world around us is not centred around care and vulnerability, and European politics tends to listen to the loudest voice in the room. This should not bring shame, but rather a sense of responsibility to reflect, and an opportunity to learn. Practicing inclusive politics means recognising that strength lies not in overpowering others, but in working together, lifting each other up, and acknowledging the diverse ways in which leadership and participation can manifest. This means cultivating a culture of mutual respect, vulnerability, and shared purpose. Our activism should not be about proving who is right—it should be about building a future where everyone feels seen, heard, and empowered to act.

The General Assembly’s (GA’s) are the place where dialogue between Member Organisations (MO’s) is facilitated and where the highest decision-making body of FYEG shapes the organisation. We want more opportunities to discuss what inclusive and caring politics means to us, as young greens. More places where we can hold open and truthful discussions with each other and within ourselves are needed. As MO’s we find it incredibly important that those spaces are inclusive, open and caring for all voices, especially during hard and difficult conversations. Only by aligning our internal practices with our external goals can we truly lead by example—and build the kind of Europe we want to live in. We must demand better of ourselves.

Therefore, we call upon the General Assembly to:

• Acknowledge and reflect on our internalised hierarchies;

• Take responsibility to engage with each other on the topic and actively participate in the dialogue.

Furthermore, we call upon the Executive Committee to:

• Facilitate physical opportunities outside the annual GA where the General Assembly can discuss how to practice inclusive and caring politics;

• Facilitate learning opportunities for members to engage with inclusive and caring politics.

Green Extractivism is Not a Climate Solution

Standing With Resistance Against Extractivism in the EU and Beyond

The energy transition fostered by the European Green Deal is presented as a win-win pathway to combat climate change and sustain economic growth through the deployment of low-carbon technologies (European Commission, 2019). However, the energy transition is a materials transition. Starting from supply of raw materials for technology manufacture, EU demand for rare earth metals is projected to grow six-fold by 2030 and seven-fold by 2050 compared to 2020, reaching over 3 million tonnes in a low-demand scenario and nearly 5 million tonnes in a high-demand scenario (Carrara et al., 2023).

While replacing a fossil-based energy system with a renewables-based one is a necessity and a historical responsibility for the EU, the push to secure resources for the European Green Deal remains rooted in a neoliberal capitalist logic of climate reductionism, prioritising CO² emissions while overlooking deeper socio-ecological injustices.

Considering that

• mineral extraction comes with severe environmental, social, and health impacts;

• more than 90% of the current raw material supply to Europe comes from outside the Eurozone (European Parliament and Council, 2024);

• more than half of the Strategic Partners for Raw Materials are Europe ex-colonies (Raw Materials Diplomacy, n.d.);

• more than half of energy transition mineral projects are located on or near Indigenous People’s lands (Owen et al., 2022);

We conclude that the EU is transitioning towards a green economy relying on an extractivist model¹, and is systematically externalising the costs of the green transition outside of Europe, as well as to its ‘peripheries^’2.With this resolution, we aim to amplify the demands of movements who have been resisting this exploitative model inside and outside of Europe.

Recognising the myriad of resistance movements, we want to bring to attention a few examples. Indigenous Peoples in northern Argentina are resisting lithium mining, challenging green extractivism driven by the Global North’s energy transition (Argento & Puente, 2023). The "lithium triangle" (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile) supplies about 85% of the EU’s lithium imports (Murguia & Obaya, 2024), with extraction encroaching on Indigenous lands and protected areas. Lithium mining generates waste, alters landscapes, contaminates water, and harms local ecosystems. Most critically, its high water consumption worsens scarcity in arid regions, threatening subsistence farming and pastoralism (Voskoboynik & Andreucci, 2021).

West Papuan tribes, political groups, and customary and civil society organisations are still resisting active colonialism, human rights abuses (Amnesty International, 2021), genocidal violence (Brundige et al., 2003; United Liberation Movement for West Papua, 2023) and have been contesting an extractive exploitation of their ancestral land (United Liberation Movement for West Papua, n.d.). Indonesia and the European Union have been negotiating the EU-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) trade agreement since 2016, pressuring the latter to remove restrictions on raw mineral exports and privatise the public energy sector. West Papuan Indigenous communities have not been consulted.

A new violent flare-up in what has been one of the most warn-torn regions for last twenty years has brought renewed attention to the historically overexploited area and peoples of central Africa in Congo (Global Conflict Tracker, 2025). The east of the country is a particularly resource-dense area, that has been mined and exploited by Western companies and its subsidiaries for centuries. 70% of the world’s cobalt, a crucial mineral for the development of batteries severely needed to power the energy transition Europe is currently on, is produced in Congo. It is also an incredibly ethnically diverse country, with over 200 ethnic groups. Reports by Amnesty International and local entities document forced evictions, sexual assaults, arson, and beatings related to the expansion of multinational mining companies. These transgressions disproportionately impact local communities, eroding their rights and means of subsistence (Amnesty International, 2023). Furthermore, all of the wealth generated from this extraction flees the country, or remains in the hands of a small local elite. There have been some efforts made, like the introduction of sustainable sourcing standards, but in reality these standards are rarely applied, and still have enormous loopholes (Deberdt & Le Billon, 2022).

However, not only Global South countries are kept in a position of dependency. European ‘peripheries’, as well as poorer and rural areas within the EU, are also being exploited for growth in the core:

Serbia is witnessing a resurgence of green extractivism through the EU-backed push for lithium mining, despite widespread public resistance that previously halted such projects (Santos, 2024). Behind closed-door agreements and technocratic rhetoric, the government advances a top-down agenda that sidelines affected communities, undermines democratic participation, and replicates authoritarian patterns of resource exploitation (Markovic, 2024). In Portugal, the green transition masks a new wave of extractivism, with lithium mining projects threatening ecologically rich and culturally significant rural regions. Framed by industry and state actors through climate and innovation discourses, these projects override local opposition and imperil traditional livelihoods. For example, in Covas do Barroso, Portugal, a designated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System, plans for Europe’s largest open-pit lithium mine threaten to displace communities and devastate ecosystems (EJAtlas, n.d.). Despite fierce local resistance, the government has advanced the project, granting land access to the mining company Savannah Resources. The grassroots movement Unidxs em Defesa de Covas do Barroso opposes this green extractivism, defending a vision of territory rooted in care, heritage, and ecological interdependence (Antonelli & Sini, 2024).

Thus, concerned that

• a greening and security discourse in the European transition agenda hides its reliance on resource appropriation from the Global South and the peripheries of Europe;

• mineral extraction is framed as essential for and compatible with sustainable development and climate change mitigation;

• only 5 Member States of the EU have ratified the ILO169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, protecting the rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, including the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent to their relocation;

• the Critical Raw Materials Act limits the rights of Indigenous peoples and communities affected by extraction projects to consultations, ignoring the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent;

• current trade agreements impose an unsustainable neo-liberal European model of development based on infinite economic growth, privatisation of public sectors, nature commodification, and primacy of European import desires over local and national needs and affected communities’ rights, while also displacing and disregarding non-Eurocentric knowledge systems and worldviews;

Emphasising again the arguments made in previous FYEG resolutions “Indigenous rights are human rights!”, and “A Degrowth Transition Towards Post-Growth Economies” and in FYEG’s political platform that

• All trade agreements by the EU and by European countries must respect the rights of the the indigenous communities directly or indirectly affected in the counterpart and possibly in neighbouring states. This must entail respect for ILO Convention 169 alongside core human rights conventions. Furthermore, these indigenous communities must be consulted and represented in the discussions and evaluation of the agreement either by a representative or, where possible, a collective or council representing them;

• The devastation caused by neoliberal capitalism cannot be solved by the same expansionist principles with a green facade. A global political perspective is essential to address ecological injustices and the unequal distribution of impacts. This includes ending resource appropriation from the Global South by the Global North and debt cancellation, alongside urgent decarbonization by countries with the greatest historical emissions. Ignoring these issues can lead to eco-fascism, where wealthy nations externalise damage and collapse to poorer regions.

• Degrowth is a demand for effective decolonization. Countries in the global south should be free to organise their resources and labour around meeting human needs rather than around servicing Northern growth. Historically, the industrial growth in Europe and the subsequent expansion and industrialisation of its colonies were significantly facilitated by the pattern of appropriating raw materials, natural resources, and labour from the Global South through what has been named as ecological unequal exchange. Even following the withdrawal of colonial troops, the fundamental structure of the colonial economy endures, sustaining growth in the North through the continued appropriation, exploitation, and oppression of the South.

We as Federation of Young European Greens call upon

• the EU to question and move beyond a development model based on infinite economic growth, privatisation of commons, nature commodification, and thus extractivism;

• the EU to recognise and interact with different, non-extractive ways of relating to nature stemming from non-Eurocentric worldviews;

• the Greens/EFA to recognise the systemic plunder of resources from the Global South and the peripheries of Europe that is still being promoted by the European energy transition and recognise its unequal distribution of costs and benefits;

• the Greens/EFA to support the demands of resistance and grassroot movements such as those in West Papua, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Serbia and Portugal;

• Member States to address historical injustices by attending and committing to demands of redistribution and reparation;

• all Member States to ratify the ILO169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention;

• the European Commission to integrate the principles of Free, Prior and Informed consent for Indigenous and other affected communities into every trade agreement negotiation with external partners.

¹ Extractivism is a model of overexploitation where local communities and environments bear the damage without benefitting, leading to ecosystem depletion, harm to human health, and the erosion of knowledge through structural violence, particularly dispossession (Ojeda et al., 2022). It refers to labour appropriation through exploitative economic, social, and ecological relations, rooted in colonial legacies, rather than small-scale mining practices (Vela-Almeida & Karlsen, 2023; Dunlap & Jakobsen, 2019; Bruna, 2022).

² The core-periphery model of imperialism explains how wealth, power, and resources are concentrated in dominant "core" countries, while "periphery" countries remain economically dependent, exploited for raw materials and labour, and structurally prevented from developing on equal terms.

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