Minerals for future low- and zero-CO2 energy and transport technologies

Meeting climate change mitigation and CO₂ emission reduction targets will require a comprehensive transition to low- and zero-CO₂ emission energy and transport technologies. This comprehensive energy transition is a vital step towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, this transition will also require an almost unprecedented increase in the production of metals and minerals. Although such production has increased throughout the 20th century, the metals and minerals required for the energy transition include a wide range of commodities that are considered critical and/or are produced as by- or co-products of other metals or minerals in addition to base metals and bulk commodities. This breadth of demand, the mineral intensity of the energy transition, and the increases in production required to meet climate change targets mean that meeting this increased demand for metals and minerals cannot simply be a case of increasing the production of these commodities. This paper outlines the material requirements for the transition to low- and zero-CO₂ energy and transport technologies and the implications of this increased demand on the minerals industry and secondary sources of these raw materials. Beyond this, the paper also details the problems caused by the co- or by-product nature of a number of the elements critical to this transition and the environmental, social, and governmental risks facing attempts to increase the production of the metals and minerals needed for this energy transition.