Yearbook of Sustainable Smart Mining and Energy 2023/24/25

This book offers a unified, interdisciplinary roadmap that bridges European climate policy, digital innovation, carbon-capture legislation and sustainable mining into a single, actionable framework for the low-carbon transition. It shows how the EU Green Deal and the “Fit for 55” package, together with the Data Governance Act, AI Regulation and Digital Markets Act, create a data-driven backbone for rapid permitting, smart-grid management and real-time emissions monitoring, while the Clean Industrial Deal injects massive public and private investment, tighter material-efficiency standards and circular-economy incentives. The German Carbon Dioxide Storage and Transport Act (KSpTG) is analysed as a model of unified legal governance for CO2 pipelines and underground storage, featuring fast-track approvals for projects deemed of overriding public interest and strict protection of marine areas. The book then turns to Mongolia, whose vast coal, copper, gold and fluorspar deposits can be developed under transparent licensing, mandatory environmental-protection plans and reclamation-fund contributions introduced by recent amendments to the Minerals Law. It highlights the strategic complementarity between Mongolia’s resource base and German mining-engineering and digital-technology expertise, with the German-Mongolian Institute for Resources and Technology providing a concrete capacity-building bridge. Finally, the work confronts the “mining paradox” of the green transition: the soaring demand for critical minerals risks replicating the ecological damage and social inequities of conventional extraction. By applying the three circular-economy pillars—efficiency, consistency and sufficiency—it proposes mechanisms such as extended producer responsibility, material stewardship, reuse-and-remanufacturing, and post-mine land-reuse (geothermal, pumped-storage, recreation). Long-term liabilities, including tailings-dam safety, acid-mine drainage and radioactive waste from rare-earth processing, are addressed through financial-bond structures, institutional monitoring regimes and community-shared-value frameworks. Target audience: policymakers, regulators, engineers, mining executives, investors and researchers working at the nexus of climate transition, resource governance and sustainable mining.