Glencore, a giant facing its contradictions: social and environmental unaccounted costs

Neyra R.; Martinez-Alier J. · Extractive Industries and Society (2026) · DOI: 10.1016/j.exis.2026.101997

Resumen

This article follows previous detailed work on business political ecology based on the EJAtlas on the Vale company, Impregilo-Salini, Total Energies, the Zijin company, and MMG-Las Bambas, and on the difficulties that such extractivist companies face when confronted by socio-environmental protestors. This article studies the transnational coal, metal mining, and agrobusiness company Glencore as a protagonist of socio-environmental conflicts in all continents. It controls the entire supply chain and logistics from extraction and/or cultivation to the sale of its products while successfully mining or attempting to mine coal, copper, and other metals, and also to extract biomass. Such extractivist companies have a crucial role in the geographical transfers of low-entropy energy, materials, and also human labor-time imported from the Peripheries in order to sustain the metabolism of the industrialized Cores. Recent research on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of extractivist companies demonstrates the contradictions between their rhetoric and their practices, pointing out that CSR tends mostly to gild their image or is a tool for greenwashing. We use instead the term “corporate social irresponsibility” to emphasize the social and environmental costs shifted by extractivist companies. After reviewing its history since its foundation, we explain its rapid growth accompanied by socio-environmental conflicts. In this article, we show that Glencore fails to comply with its CSR principles and that the profits generated by the company throughout its existence would not have been possible had it truly respected environmental, human, and labor rights.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina