The Great Green Grab | Climate Extractivism and the New Resource Imperialism | Philippe Le Billon

The spiralling climate crisis demands a rapid shift away from fossil fuels. But most current approaches to decarbonisation rely on a dramatic expansion of resource extraction–exacerbating environmental degradation and deepening global inequalities. This is the paradox of the so-called green transition.

Philippe Le Billon offers a critical examination of the material and political underpinnings of climate change mitigation. Drawing on insights from political ecology, critical geography and environmental justice, he interrogates the rise of ‘climate extractivism’: the opening up of new resource frontiers and the construction of infrastructure megaprojects in the name of sustainability. From artisanal cobalt mining in the DRC to rare-earth geopolitics, and from biofuel plantations to deep-sea and space mining, he reveals how green growth agendas frequently reproduce colonial structures, social injustice and patterns of dispossession.

Scrutinising proposed solutions such as geoengineering, carbon offsets, circular economy schemes and degrowth, Le Billon shows that many climate adaptation strategies remain tethered to considerations of economic growth and geopolitical competition. Rather than rejecting the urgency of climate transition, The Great Green Grab calls for a fairer, post-extractive future—one that wholly reshapes how we produce and consume energy, and fosters a more democratic, cooperative relationship with the earth.

Philippe Le Billon is a professor with the Department of Geography and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Oxford, and was a Fulbright Research Chair at UC Berkeley, a Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, a CARE Climate Leadership Fellow at Sciences Po Paris, and held positions at the Overseas Development Institute and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. A political ecologist working on the linkages between environment, development and security, he is the author of Wars of Plunder: Conflicts, Profits and the Politics of Resources (also published by Hurst); co-author of Oil; and co-editor of Environmental Defenders: Deadly Struggles for Life and Territory.

Table of contents

A Note on Misuse

Preamble

1. Introduction

PART I: CLIMATE CRISIS AND THE TRANSITION IMPERATIVE

2. Climate Crisis, Green Transition, and Extractivism

3. The Extraction Gap

4. Green Rush Conflicts

PART II: BEYOND THE BRIGHT SIDE OF GREEN

5. Cobalt: Digging Pits With Bare Hands

6. Rare Earths: Melting Hills Beyond the Border

7. Lithium: Evaporating Water in Deserts

8. Deepsea Mining: Scraping the Bottom

9. Outerspace Mining: Capitalizing on the Heavens

PART III: RENEWABLE EXTRACTIVISM

10. Feeding the Machine: Biomass and Agro-Extractivism

11. Damming the Flow: Hydropower and Water Extractivism

12. Shining Bright: Solar Power 1

3. Winding Up: Wind Power

14. Greening Nukes: Nuclear Energy

PART IV: BACK TO EARTH

15. Carbon, Sunshine, and Geoengineering

16. Offsetting Extraction

17. Ending Fossil Fuel Extractivism

18. Greening Extraction?

19. Degrowth and Decolonizing Extractivism

20. Conclusion

Notes

Index