The metals sector faces multiple and interconnected barriers to achieving circularity. This study examines steel, aluminum, and copper to illustrate how challenges vary between metals. While copper can often be recycled without quality loss, steel and aluminum face alloy-related limitations that drive downcycling and quality degradation. Using a matrix-based analytical framework, the study maps the interactions between economic, technological, institutional, and social constraints, distinguishing between primary drivers, secondary effects, feedback loops, and lock-in mechanisms. The results show strong reinforcing links between economic, technological, and institutional domains, with social factors playing a more indirect role. These findings align with observed industry patterns while adding a structured, quantitative perspective. By clarifying how different barriers combine and reinforce one another, the analysis identifies priority areas for intervention to advance metals recycling and support the transition toward a more circular economy. 

A global transition from the current “brown economy” to a “green economy” has been perceived as an ineluctable carbon neutrality strategy to deal with climate change and its global devastating impacts. This global ambition of green economy necessitates large-scale electrification which imposes growing demand for lithium-ion batteries as state-of-the-art energy storage technologies. Thereupon, the developing market of batteries reinforces the concern over the resilient and consistent supply of battery raw materials. By the reason of the interdependencies of all the stages involved in a value chain of a battery, it is critical to identify the battery material supply-disruptive risks and uncertainties, and subsequently to analyze the impacts of the perpetuation of the supply issues on the future market of batteries. In this research study, to contribute to these processes necessary for overcoming the ongoing supply sustainability challenges, the focus is on lithium, nickel, graphite, and cobalt, which are among the battery raw materials with high supply risks. After analyzing and categorizing the driving forces behind the historical and current bottlenecks to their mining production, the regional and global mining production of those battery materials have been predicted for twenty years ahead using three time series forecasting techniques including Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average, Holt's linear trend, and Holt-Winters’ methods. Forecasting possible future production trends of those battery raw materials is indisputably imperative to resolve planning strategies while dealing with uncertainties and supply risks. Reliable supply forecasting results provide more uncertainty and risk management achievements since the stakeholders and policymakers can use the outcomes as a source of information in the decision-making process at any stage of a lithium-ion battery value chain.

This paper explores energy transition dynamics in three Arctic cities: Luleå (Sweden), Fairbanks (Alaska), and Yellowknife (Canada), with a focus on sustainable urban development. Semi-structured interviews with the mayors of these cities provide insights into their decision-making processes and strategies regarding energy transitions. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) for semantic analysis, the study uncovers implicit priorities, challenges, and aspirations from the qualitative data. The analysis is guided by the theory of planned behavior, which helps to explain the underlying motivations, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control that influence policy decisions. Results reveal common themes such as balancing environmental goals with economic and social concerns, while also highlighting context-specific challenges in each city. This research contributes to the understanding the role of municipal leadership in energy transitions and demonstrates the effectiveness of NLP techniques in extracting meaningful insights from interviews. The findings aim to inform policymakers and urban planners on fostering sustainable energy transitions in Arctic regions.

Disinformation campaigns have been deployed on social media by foreign states to target democratic elections as well as sow distrust in traditional authority figures. Scarce attention has been devoted to study the intensity and nature of online disinformation in relation to Arctic issues. This article presents evidence from an empirical study that gathered 1.7 million messages posted on the social media X (Twitter) that addressed Arctic issues. In total, we manually coded 12 500 to detect if and how disinformation was present. We found that Arctic disinformation is first and foremost climate disinformation: climate deniers or minimizers are the main drivers of disinformation on the region. These accounts have used common strategies including cherry-picking data, providing anecdotal evidence and attacking scientists to push their arguments forward. Finally, we observed an increase in Arctic disinformation since Elon Musk expressed his intention to acquire the platform.

Following the rush to minerals that would enable the shift towards green economies, the Sámi homeland is quickly becoming a crucible for the rising tensions surrounding the potential for new mining projects and large-scale infrastructure projects. The roots of these conflicts date back to the colonization of the north and continue in the present with the ongoing fight to maintain the Sámi heritage, language and culture, and increasingly to gain ownership of their lands. What initially began as activism within the legal system has, on occasions, transformed into outright protests. Social media increasingly plays a key role in disseminating the message of Indigenous protest among the protesters themselves and feeding into the national and international mainstream media. This shift occurs simultaneously with the construction of a dual narrative, constituted of both land-use protest and intensified demands for Indigenous rights, including, first and foremost, the right to self-determination. Drawing from Social media theory literature and the concepts of political opportunity structures (POS) and legal opportunity structures (LOS), this study argues that social media is one of the most essential tools used by Sámi activists to raise awareness about issue-based protests as well as to communicate demands for the right to self-determination when legal and political opportunity structures are not enough to support the cause. The power of social media lies in its accessibility, immediacy and visuality, which is illustrated in the article via specific examples of mining and railway construction protests in Finland and Sweden. Social media does not replace older tools, such as international human rights litigation, but their use can complement existing strategies for defending and advancing Indigenous rights. 

The global commitment to decarbonizing the transport sector has resulted in an unabated growth in the markets for electric vehicles and their batteries. Consequently, the demand for battery raw materials is continuously growing. As an illustration, to meet the net-zero emissions targets, the electric vehicle market demand for lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite will increase 26-times, 6-times, 12-times, and 9-times respectively between 2021 and 2050. There are diverse challenges in meeting this demand, requiring the world to embrace technological and knowledge advancements and new investments without provoking conflicts between competing goals. The uncertainties in a sustainable supply of battery minerals, environmental, social and governance complexities, and geopolitical tensions throughout the whole battery value chain have shaped the global and regional concerns over the success of transport decarbonization. Here, focusing on the entire value chain of electric vehicle batteries, the approaches adopted by regulatory agencies, governments, mining companies, vehicle and battery manufacturers, and all the other stakeholders are evaluated. Bringing together all these aspects, this literature review broadens the scope for providing multifaceted solutions necessary to optimize the goal of transport decarbonization while upholding sustainability criteria. Consolidating the previously fragmented information, a solid foundation for more in-depth research on existing difficulties encountered by governmental and industrial actors is created. The outcomes of this study may serve as a baseline to develop a framework for a climate smart and resource efficient supply of batteries considering the unique impacts of individual players.

Political polarization is increasingly undermining citizen trust. As authorities and science lose legitimacy due to the intensification of polarization, the barriers to finding policy solutions, particularly on divisive issues like climate change, become more daunting. Exacerbating this problem, by drawing on diverse sources of validation, including scientific findings and traditional and social media, opposing sides construct their own ‘truth,’ often fueled by misinformation and misperceptions. This phenomenon, known as factual belief polarization, is exacerbated by selective exposure within echo chambers on social media, where individuals are insulated from alternative perspectives. This paper examines polarization in public debate on climate change in the Arctic, focusing on the role of social media via X (Twitter). Through an analysis of top retweets between the period of May 2021 to April 2022, key themes related to climate change are identified and the degree of polarization assessed. In combination with an overview of the content of the tweets, the paper elucidates whether polarization is similar to general debates over climate change and what type of argumentation is made by both climate change advocates and deniers. 

For many natural resource projects, the impact on Indigenous communities is a primary concern. Therefore, governance arrangements that account for the interests of companies, communities, and government are critical for the project’s success. This paper looked at two successful mining projects in northern Canada, McArthur River and Diavik, to examine the governance arrangement that led to mutually beneficial outcomes. Through an analysis of interviews and documents, we assessed both governing institutions and interactions to understand how the respective companies and communities established a high level of trust. In both cases, government took a less prominent role in the management of resources, allowing the Indigenous communities to hold a stronger role in the governance of the resources. Both Indigenous communities, therefore, built partnerships with the company around socio-economic benefits along with environmental monitoring – redefining ‘community’ in governance arrangements.

The role of corporations in societal outcomes continues to grow. Mining companies now face the expectation of not only providing economic benefits to communities, but act as a facilitator for social wellbeing and environmental stewardship. In the mining sector, this has placed renewed attention to defining corporate social responsibility and, in turn, how social license to operate is understood. These developments are particularly pertinent when mining operations affect Indigenous communities – where land use is central to livelihood. This study looks at the community engagement strategies of two mining companies in northern countries, Cameco (Canada) and Boliden (Sweden). By comparing their approaches, this paper explores the development of their practices over time and assess to what extent their corporate policy has translated into everyday practice and outcomes. The findings of demonstrate that high levels of trust are established when corporate approaches are built around transparency and collaboration – resulting in agreements that include long-term partnerships around socio-economic and environmental management.