A new report released this month by the Energy Transition Commission, an international think tank comprising a coalition of leaders from across the energy landscape committed to achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century, has identified supply gaps for six materials key to green energy technology and calls for increased investment in the supply chain to stave off shortages looming within the next decade.
Predicting that the global pursuit of net zero carbon emissions will require production of up to 6.5 billion tonnes of materials between 2022 and 2050, the study predicts looming supply gaps for four of what ARPN has dubbed the “battery criticals” — lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt (but not the fifth battery critical manganese), as well as the rare earth material neodymium and copper, a mainstay metal that has featured prominently on various government’s critical minerals lists but has yet to be added to the overall U.S. government list (though DoE has just afforded the metal critical mineral status in its 2023 Critical Materials Assessment).
The authors of the study lament the lack of investment in exploration in the past decade and argue that “[i]n some key minerals — particularly lithium and copper – it will be challenging to scale up supply fast enough over the next decade to keep pace with rapidly rising demand.”
Stressing the need for drastic increases in capital investment in energy transition metals, the commission calls for a comprehensive “all-of-the-above” approach to mineral resource security, which harnesses the potential of recycling and improving technology and materials efficiency alongside more mining and prudently regulating environmental and social standards.
The report is released at a time when nations around the world are stepping up their efforts to secure the materials underpinning 21st century and green energy technologies. While much progress has been made both via national and multilateral efforts – see our previous coverage here on the blog under the section header “recent posts” — more remains to be done.
See the report here.
