From lithium to batteries: Opportunities and challenges for linking Argentina’s lithium extraction to national industrial development

Abstract

Argentina’s attempts to exploit its huge reserves of lithium – a strategic mineral crucial to the global green transition – has prompted public discussion on how best to link these resources to the country’s industrial development strategy. Against this backdrop, the paper adopts a technological innovation system (TIS) framework to analyse the opportunities and challenges presented by the current lithium boom and the formation of lithium-ion battery value chains. As the analysis makes clear, a just green transition must not only take into account environmental assets and liabilities, but also the unequal opportunities for industrial development and the appropriation of natural resource rents that inevitably arise.