European Commission eyes law change to allow water‑intensive critical‑minerals mines

The EU prepares to rewrite its key law protecting rivers, groundwater + wetlands. The Commission says it's to remove 'bottlenecks' slowing critical minerals mining. Campaigners say the EU has "not presented a shred of evidence" water protections cause 'bottlenecks': share.google/GUSJwy4eJPkh...

‘It’s Russian roulette’: Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed areas and plans to rewrite water laws to speed up development Story: share.google/Gdw3DhAYhI5s... Map: watershedinvestigations.com/find-out-wha...

Yet more evidence the idea the UK is out on its own pursuing climate action is palpably ridiculous. This week alone there's been a massive Amazon wind farm deal in Germany, hugely ambitious electric truck targets in China, and G7 action on critical minerals. www.businessgreen.com/news-analysi...

‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions Exclusive: European Commission planning to rewrite key law to allow water-intensive mines in regions suffering from drought www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Large data centres that for the time being require lots of water for cooling, that need chips to facilitate #AI computing power, that need critical and rare minerals to mine, that need water to extract. A draining interdependency to serve digital EU sovereignty and tech competitiveness.

Business interests always put green tech front & centre in deregulatory arguments to try + look like they're earnestly trying to save the planet. Critical minerals are also used for data centres + defence systems, which I suspect is the bigger economic driver here.

The mining industry is at the forefront of the attack on EU environmental laws (alongside intensive farming, chemicals & pharma). Interesting they claim all their projects are sustainable, but also cannot proceed without allowing deterioration of water resources www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Moscow noting developments. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail told local newspaper Izvestia in May that Moscow was concerned by intense U.S. activity around critical minerals & rare earths in Central Asia, portraying it as an effort to push Russia out of a region it treats as a sphere of interest.’

🚨AI-driven exploration for copper & rare earth/critical minerals in CA . Noem said she's excited to contribute her "experience" in pub.policy,stakeholder engagement,& strategic planning as the co.advances its initiatives in critical minerals,which are vital for defense systems,AI, & data centers.😳🖕🏻

There’s a new gold rush in the American west. Trump’s Unleashing American Energy Act reclassified gold and silver as critical minerals and made BLM approve mining projects on public lands. Will this mean an open-pit heap leach mine on sacred Conglomerate Mesa? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Thank you to Rare Earth Exchanges for covering our latest briefing, detailing 🇪🇺 exposure to 🇨🇳 rare earth minerals. The EU must accelerate efforts to diversify sources of critical minerals, and explicitly name China in its Critical Raw Materials Act. rareearthexchanges.com/news/hong-ko...

Transition to clean energy won't fail because the world runs out of useful minerals. It will falter or fail because of the horribly inefficient geo-political forces that manage minerals. briefing.tfie.io/p/critical-m...

At some point, the people in power will realize that when ecosystems collapse then economies collapse too. They'll almost certainly realize it too late. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

www.theguardian.com/environment/... "Six of the strategic mines are planned for highly water-stressed areas in Spain, with others in Portugal and Greece. All three countries rank among the top 10 EU nations with the worst water scarcity, according to the European Environment Agency." #ClimateChange

The US military is spending big on critical minerals | Grist grist.org/indigenous/t...