As the world rushes to exploit the “critical minerals” needed for the transition to green energy, a UN-led panel has been tasked with putting together guidelines to ensure that their extraction and exploitation is fair, transparent and environmentally friendly.
The demand for metals such as cobalt, nickel, lithium and rare earths – essential for the manufacture of clean-technology components – is expected to surge by three and a half times before the end of the decade.
This comes after more than 110 countries committed to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 at last year’s Cop28 climate summit.
Making the promised rapid transition to zero-carbon renewables means massive investment in solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and storage batteries – all of which are made using hefty quantities of minerals.
"A world powered by renewables is a world hungry for critical minerals," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said as he launched the oversight panel, adding that the race to net zero emissions must not “trample over the poor”.
Resource-heavy
According to the International Energy Agency, which sits on the panel, a typical electric car requires six times the mineral input of a conventional car, while an onshore wind plant needs nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired plant.
The booming demand for critical minerals offers a major opportunity for developing countries and particularly for Africa – which holds over a fifth of the world’s reserves for clean energy metals.
Although many rare earth metals are quite common, they’re seldom found in sufficient amounts to be extracted easily or economically – and are therefore “rare”.
The panel’s mission – as well as limiting the potential for environmental harm and human rights abuses linked to mining such as illegal and child labour – is to ensure that developing nations do not end up being mere suppliers of raw materials.
In Africa, a growing number of domestic mineral processing plants are being built. Moves are afoot in the Democratic Republic of Congo – home to half of the world’s cobalt reserves – to locally refine the metal, which is used to produce batteries.
Risky business
Such new ventures also bring a heightened risk of corruption, warned Jean-Pierre Okenda, country director of Resource Matters, an independent non-profit in the extractive industries sector.
“With the demand for minerals, and this is already happening in my country, we are going to see licence negotiations, contracts that will be negotiated outside of the rules,” Okenda told RFI last year at an OECD forum dedicated to responsible mineral supply chains.
“This is a significant risk that could ultimately result in the generation of resources for the African elites in power to the detriment of communities.”
In terms of the environment, mining activities can cause land and water contamination, the spread of toxic waste, deforestation, sinkholes, biodiversity losses and disruption to local communities.
Chaired by South Africa and the European Commission, the panel will be tasked with developing a set of global common and voluntary principles to safeguard both social and ecological standards.
It’s made up of 38 members including 24 countries, NGOs and global bodies such as the World Bank and the International Council on Mining and Metals, which represents a third of the global metals and mining industry.
The panel is to share its draft of non-binding guidelines in September.
