Lithium and Energy Transition: 10 Key Questions

Lithium has become a central resource for the global energy transition, driven by growing demand for rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. Argentina, with its high Andean salt flats in Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca, holds a significant share of the world’s reserves — but its exploitation generates tensions that go far beyond the economic.

This document addresses ten questions about lithium and the energy transition: what it is and why it gained relevance, how it is extracted, what environmental and social impacts it generates in the territories, and what legal framework regulates the activity in Argentina. It also examines what a “just transition” means and how the country fits into the global lithium supply chain.