Lithium brine mining affects geodiversity and Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

The Andean Altiplano holds the largest lithium brine reserves in the world, which are being extracted in service of the global low-carbon economy and the desire to meet the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as clean energy and climate action. To date, little is known about the effects that lithium brine mining has on the environment or which trade-offs to SDGs are associated with the extraction. This systematic literature review brings together the effects of lithium brine mining on geodiversity and their influence on SDGs. The effects on geodiversity are found to be spread across all essential geodiversity variables and influence all SDGs, except SDG 14. The changes in geodiversity have consequences for the unique biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Andean Altiplano and consequently affect the lives of indigenous communities. Independent and quantitative research is lacking and therefore monitoring and measuring are key to understanding how the natural environment in the Andean Altiplano has been changing due to lithium brine mining practices. Unsustainable management by the mining industry can potentially cause ecosystem collapse, irreversible environmental degradation, increased inequality, conflict, and the displacement of populations when resources are misused or managed poorly. However, sustainable management has the potential to mobilise human, physical, financial, and technological resources to advance the SDGs. The results emphasise how intricately connected the extraction of lithium brine, geodiversity and the SDGs are, and can be used as a guideline for global agenda making on sustainable lithium brine extraction in the Andean Altiplano. • The demand for lithium is on the rise. • Lithium brine extraction affects all variables of geodiversity. • Hydrology is affected most through depletion, pollution and changing hydrodynamics. • The effects on geodiversity affect all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) except 14. • Lithium brine mining holds the potential to both impede and advance the SDGs.

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