The climate crisis is deepening and accelerating, and in response several initiatives, such as Green New Deal proposals which are centred on decarbonising the energy system, are promoting a transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy generation. Yet, new energy, mining and infrastructural frontiers are encroaching upon communities and territories across the globe, therefore such a transition is itself associated with potentially grave socio-environmental impacts.

- Excerpt from The Nickel Nexus: Mapping the Frontiers of Carbon Neutrality

The Center's first report and accompanying policy brief have been published, written by authors Daniel Macmillen Voskoboynik and JD Farrugia, supported by Christos Zografos, Marta Conde, Diego Andreucci, Isabella Radhuber, and Lucinda Cash-Gibson. The report, entitled ​"The Nickel Nexus: Mapping the Frontiers of Carbon Neutrality", unearths some of the key issues relating to the materials being used for the green transition - known as "transition materials" - and their socio-environmental impacts. It explores the case of nickel production as a window into the destructive consequences of the extraction, processing and waste production derived from transition materials, analysing the relationship between the growing demand for nickel in some regions of the world and the socio-environmental impacts its production has on others.

The accompanying policy brief, entitled "Nickel and the frontiers of carbon neutrality", presents a series of systemic and practical policy recommendations for regional actors, states, subnational governments and municipalities as potential ways to work towards a socially and environmentally just economy that protects the world’s ecosystems and vulnerable populations whilst tackling climate change through innovative and sustainable practices.