Raw material requirements: energy transition with consequences | nd-aktuell.de

Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power reduces the consumption of coal, oil and natural gas. But of course the energy transition cannot do without numerous raw materials. For example, the construction of wind turbines typically requires steel, concrete, aluminum, copper and rare earths such as praseodymium and neodymium. In the batteries of electric cars, cobalt and lithium are usually found, along with other raw materials.

As decarbonization progresses, the need for these materials increases significantly. A research team led by the Berlin climate research institute Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) has determined how high it is likely to be, what risks the funding entails and how material consumption could be reduced. The results of the Study were published in the journal “Nature Climate Change”.

Significantly increased demand for raw materials

The need for raw materials depends, among other things, on whether global warming can be limited to 1.5 degrees – a goal that many experts doubt – or whether there will be warming of 2 degrees or more. In the latter scenario, the consequences of the climate crisis, such as the number of extremely hot days and sea level rise, would become significantly worse.

If the world were to make great efforts to reach the 1.5 degree target, it would need more materials to achieve this. According to the research team, the demand for copper could increase by 30 percent by 2050. The team expects an increase of 150 percent for iron and steel over the same period, and even 260 percent for aluminum.

This could exacerbate problems that the extraction of raw materials is already causing today. The scientists have therefore created a so-called risk profile for each raw material, which shows what consequences its extraction has on resources, biodiversity and local people.

One of the raw materials central to the climate change is lithium. The light metal is also an important component of the batteries in smartphones, tablets and notebooks, and demand for it is correspondingly high. The world’s largest deposits of lithium are in the border triangle of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. There it is mostly extracted from underground salt lakes. The water is pumped upwards and then often evaporates in huge basins until the necessary concentration is reached to be able to further process the lithium.

However, this mining method has come under increasing criticism in recent years. This causes the groundwater level to drop, which leads to water supply bottlenecks for local agriculture and the predominantly indigenous population in the already very dry regions.

However, this is just one problematic consequence of the mining of raw materials, which the research team draws attention to. Another is the destruction of endangered ecosystems and land consumption. For example, in countries like Brazil and Guinea, the rainforest is being cleared to access the bauxite stored in the ground, a raw material for aluminum. In addition, mining can also pollute the environment, for example if toxic chemicals are released into the soil and water.

In addition, the working conditions when extracting raw materials are often poor and usually of little economic benefit to the local communities. There are also dependencies between countries and on a few companies. The Congo, for example, relies on China as a buyer of the cobalt extracted from mines. And China, in turn, dominates the market for cobalt and other important raw materials.

In addition to the often problematic funding of materials, the study draws attention to another challenge: the increasing mountains of waste. Electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream. Much of it ends up abroad, for example in Ghana, and poisons the soil, plants and water there. The resources in the discarded devices are often no longer used, even though they could theoretically still be recycled.

Suggestions for saving materials

Given the numerous global problems in material extraction, the authors of the study make a clear prediction: “This expected increase in impacts contradicts the protection of biodiversity and other goals for a healthy ecosystem and is likely to increasingly lead to conflicts with legislation for the supply chain and environmental protection in the mining countries as well as resistance from non-governmental organizations and the general public. According to them, countermeasures could be taken by designing decarbonization differently than before, i.e. with lower material consumption.

The keyword under which the research team summarizes its suggestions is “demand-side climate protection”. This refers to strategies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and consumers’ energy consumption. This could be achieved, for example, through behavioral changes, low-carbon infrastructures, resource-efficient production of materials and circular economy approaches that give processed raw materials a “second life”.

The researchers cite the use of pooled mobility such as car sharing instead of private cars as concrete approaches. In the building sector, space could be used more efficiently than before by reducing the per capita consumption of space, modernizing old buildings and using more natural building materials. A more plant-based diet would not only be healthy for consumers, but could also reduce the amount of land needed for livestock farming, the team continued.

Pilot projects have also shown that discarded batteries from electric cars, for example, do not necessarily have to end up in the trash. In this way, several old batteries can be used together to store renewable energies for several years – and thus be of double benefit for the climate change.