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The introduction to this special issue sets out the heuristic interest of considering the greening of mining and the installation of renewable energy production facilities together. This comparison enables us to discuss the concept of “green extractivism” and to question the changes introduced by the “energy transition”, beyond its rhetoric. To do this, we adopt a ground-level approach, looking as closely as possible at the practices of actors and the materiality of production processes. In so doing, this introduction presents the three main themes of the paper: firstly, a localized analysis of the discourse of transition; secondly, the relationship between public and private action; and thirdly, a study of the dynamics of capital accumulation and industrial pollution at the time of the “ecological transition” imperative.