The Elements of Power

Synopsis

There’s a certain irony at the heart of The Elements of Power. The very materials promised to power a cleaner, greener future come with a story that is anything but clean.

In this deeply reported and quietly unsettling book, Nicolas Niarchos takes a sharp look at the hidden costs of the green transition. Tracing the global race for battery metals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to China and the United States, Niarchos reveals a world shaped by extraction, inequality and geopolitical tension. 

This is a book about power in every sense: political, technological, human. And it asks an uncomfortable question: what does progress really cost, and who pays for it?