Current European and national strategies to meet climate targets rely almost entirely on the deployment of new technologies such as electric vehicles for mobility and solar panels and wind turbines for electricity. But by deploying these technologies on a massive scale into an economic system that remains linear and extractive, we risk failing to fully address the threat of climate change while creating grave, new social and environmental issues at the same time.
Next to steel, copper, aluminum and fiberglass, these technologies contain a wide variety of critical and rare earth elements (REE) such as neodymium, cobalt and praseodymium. For some of these metals, meeting projected global demand for electric vehicles would require a more than threefold increase in production in the next 10 years. This stacks up quickly alongside large projected increases in demand for solar panels and wind turbines. Investments in public transport and vehicle sharing can help us hit climate targets while reducing dependency on raw materials, excessive resource extraction and waste.
It remains uncertain if production can scale up fast enough to meet projected metal demands. It can take up to 10 or even 20 years to open a new mine, and these resources and production facilities are found in only a few countries. This makes these supply chains fragile, susceptible to geopolitical conflict and vulnerable to external shocks.
During the current coronavirus crisis, production of electric vehicles has dropped, with manufacturers citing “battery supply bottlenecks” that highlight vulnerability of the supply chain. The controlled supply also has price implications.