How have historical precedents of energy transitions shaped current governance structures and public perceptions of new energy technologies?

In what ways do past approaches to scientific risk assessments influence current public trust (or distrust) in decarbonisation technologies and energy governance frameworks?

How have past extraction-based economies influenced notions of national identity and sovereignty, and in what ways do these legacies continue to affect contemporary resistance to or support for decarbonisation efforts?

-What is the relationship between resource extraction and nationalism, particularly the negotiation of national identity?
-What will decarbonisation mean for nations that have deeply intertwined their identity with a particular extractive regime?
-How can we understand extractive regimes as perpetuators of more-than-human violence?
-What is the role of spectacle in extractive regimes?

Some starting questions for the round table:
How can we compare experiences of extractivism across geographies and time?
What socio-technological networks where leading to and changed by extractivism?
How can we create from local experiences an expected future for global trajectories (i.e. memories of the future-like)?

Perspectives on the regimes of the extractive industry cannot be considered in isolation from economic growth, geopolitics, social and cultural background of the different regions. Based on the critical role played by energy and critical minerals extraction to drive economic growth of the global south, the transition for winding down these extractions must address the concerns of institutional poverty, hunger, disease and perennial conflicts. While the big International Mining Companies in the extractive sector are presently adopting divestment policies with portfolios emphasizing renewable energy interests, challenges of divestments are constituting a notable “trilemma”. The question is “who will bell the cat” ? from the viewpoint of security, sustainability and affordability of funding for the extractions of those nation’s resources. Evidence based case studies in the Africa mining sector, indicate that the critical minerals are prone to the challenges of discovery of the high demanding commodities based on the lack of exposed metal deposits. We need to look for deeper and larger deposits with better and more costly technologies. This contribution surmised that the current stage of development of most nations in the global south in the context of resource extraction should strongly consider the energy deficit, energy security, energy dependence, geopolitics and economic growth of the nations to foster social equity and poverty alleviation. The enormous quantity of fossil fuels and energy mineral reserves in the African continent will remain an important part of the energy mix from which renewables could be funded on a long term.