Strategic Co-Director

Thea Riofrancos

Strategic Co-Director,
Associate Professor of Political Science,
Providence College

Thea Riofrancos is a Strategic Co-Director of the Climate & Community Institute. She is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College and a fellow at the Transnational Institute. Her research focuses on resource extraction, renewable energy, climate change, the global lithium sector, green technologies, social movements, and the Latin American left. These themes are explored in her book, Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador, peer-reviewed articles in Perspectives on Politics, Cultural Studies, World Politics, and Global Environmental Politics, essays that have appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, n+1, Dissent, Jacobin and NACLA, and in her co-authored book, A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019). Her next book is Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, forthcoming with W.W. Norton.

Featured Work

Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility and Less Mining

Transportation is the number one source of carbon emissions in the United States– making the sector crucial to decarbonize quickly to limit the climate crisis. States …

Transportation & Mining

All Contributions

Report

Hacia un transporte de emisiones cero con una mayor movilidad y una menor explotación minera

El transporte es el principal causante de emisiones de carbono en los Estados Unidos. Esto lo convierte en un sector clave a descarbonizar con la mayor …

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Report

A Green New Deal for Transportation

The transportation system is the connective tissue that transforms pockets of communities into a networked society. It links home, school, work, and play. It drives economic …

Report

The Effects of Lithium Mining

Although lithium is geologically abundant, the vast majority of lithium extraction is concentrated in Australia, Chile, Argentina, and China. At the same time, the lithium extraction …

Report

Efectos de la extracción de litio

Aunque en términos geológicos el litio es abundante, su extracción se concentra mayormente en Australia, Chile, Argentina y China. Por otro lado, la frontera de extracción …

Report

A New Era of Public Power

In 2019, New York State lawmakers passed the most ambitious state-level climate legislation in the country—and among the most ambitious in the world. The Climate Leadership …

Memo

Inflation Reduction Act

After an excruciating year of negotiations and ceaseless pressure from the climate movement, Senators Manchin and Schumer came to a deal: the Inflation Reduction Act. If …