July 28, 2017
The report – ‘The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals for a Low-Carbon Future’ – indicates that the shift to a low-carbon future will result in opportunities for mineral-rich countries. Therefore these countries should forge long-term strategies for sustainable mineral extraction and make appropriate investments. Low-carbon technology requirements, and hence relevant minerals and metals demand, rise most rapidly the closer the world is to achieving the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement commitment of avoiding a 2°C rise in the global temperature. The most significant example of this is electric storage batteries, where the demand for the metals required to manufacture the batteries – aluminum, cobalt, iron, lead, lithium, manganese and nickel – grow from a relatively modest level under a 4°C rise to more than 1000% under a 2°C scenario. The future demand for specific metals is not only a function of the degree…