Global demand for minerals is rising fast. This is being driven by the  shift to renewable energy  and electric vehicles, and increasingly by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres. Minerals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt are essential for these technologies, but extracting them often comes at a high cost to people and planet.  
Amnesty International’s research, spanning more than a decade and many countries, shows that communities at the frontlines of so-called “critical minerals” extraction experience serious human rights and environmental abuses. These include health-harming pollution, forced evictions, dangerous working conditions, loss of livelihoods and violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination. From the  Philippines  to the  Democratic Republic of Congo , and  the USA , the pattern is clear: too often, the demand for minerals happens at the expense of human rights and the environment.  
What are critical minerals?  
“Critical minerals” are raw materials such as  lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and rare earth elements.  They are considered “critical” because they are essential for modern technologies such as electric vehicle batteries, AI hardware and infrastructure, wind turbines, power grids and smartphones. 
Governments and companies often describe these minerals as “critical” to justify continued extraction of natural resources in the name of green energy, technological progress, defence, and national security. The climate crisis indeed requires urgent action. But while these minerals play an important role in the urgent  transition to renewable energy , increased extraction carries serious risks for human rights and the environment. A  rights-respecting transition  must therefore also focus on reducing overall demand for new mining, by measures such as reducing car dependence, increasing energy efficiency, decreasing electric vehicle battery sizes and maximizing battery recycling and reuse. 

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