From Mining to Climate Action

The COP30 will be judged by its ability to transform climate goals into real action. To achieve this, it is essential to responsibly expand the supply of critical and strategic minerals (CSMs), ensuring stable, predictable, and environmentally sound access to the inputs for the energy transition. 

Brazil is a major exporter of minerals, but there is a mismatch between its geological potential and the level of industrialization, which weakens mineral security. Rare earth elements illustrate this challenge: significant reserves and nascent production.

Nevertheless, we have a competitive three-pronged approach: geological diversity, a low-emission electricity grid, and robust environmental legislation. The agenda proposed by the Brazilian Mining Institute (IBRAM) connects this potential to an industrial and climate policy that attracts green capital, with governance at the local, national, and international levels guided by sustainability and equity.

This agenda involves transparency in the use of CFEM (compensation tax for mineral extraction) and the integration of mineral income into territorial policies for infrastructure, education, and economic diversification, as well as a traceability pact for MCEs (Mineral Clearing and Settlement), a digital infrastructure connecting data from the National Mining Agency, Ibama (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), the Federal Revenue Service, municipalities, and companies; and modernizing logistics with more railways and waterways, biofuels, and electrification.

For IBRAM, COP30 is the chance to establish a Brazilian model for circular economy initiatives that unites decarbonization, inclusion, and competitiveness: the use of clean electricity; a circular economy; technologies that reduce impacts and emissions; and methods that replace dams. This agenda needs to be included in the official program and in parallel events, with traceability as a premise, sustainable finance, international cooperation, strengthening research centers, and targets for low-carbon logistics.

IBRAM coordinates ongoing initiatives on the climate agenda, focusing on four areas that guide the sector's actions: the applied carbon market and design of the Brazilian Emissions Trading System, climate finance for low-carbon projects, the role of MCEs in the COP30 agenda, and adaptation to climate change in the mining context.

Among the objective goals, the following stand out: increase renewable energy sources by 15%. In conservation, increase the ratio of protected to impacted areas by 10%. In water, reduce the specific use of new water by 10%. In adaptation, promote the development of 25 plans in mining cities. In decarbonization, act simultaneously to reduce direct and iron ore supply-chain emissions, and to enable solutions for the energy transition through MCEs (Multi-Cutting Energy Strategies).

Received: October 10, 2025

Accepted for publication: October 29, 2025

Translation published: May 27, 2026 

* Translated by Theo Pereira with the support of digital machine translation tools: Google Translate (initial draft), Grammarly (grammatical and syntactic revision), and ChatGPT (selective phrasing refinements). Reviewed by the author.

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