18 July 2017: The World Bank has released a report highlighting the importance of long-term planning for a low-carbon future in order to carefully prepare for the demands and impacts of low-carbon technologies on minerals and metals.

The report, titled ‘The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals for a Low-Carbon Future,’ states that keeping the global average temperature rise below 2ºC relative to pre-industrial levels requires a significant increase in the use of “green” technologies such as wind, solar and energy storage batteries. This clean energy transition in turn, requires greater quantities of several minerals and metals, including aluminum, copper, lead, lithium, manganese, nickel, silver, steel, zinc, indium, molybdenum and neodymium.

According to the report, this increased demand will be particularly significant for metals used for electric storage batteries (aluminum, cobalt, iron, lead, lithium, manganese and nickel), which are expected to see a 1000% demand increase under a 2ºC pathway.

The report highlights the global opportunities that this transition to a low-carbon future will produce for mineral- and metal-rich countries. It provides an overview of the different strategic advantages held by different countries and regions for the different types of minerals and metals required for various green technologies.

The report stresses the opportunities for countries to grow their economies through the low-carbon transition, provided they put long-term strategies in place that enable informed investment decisions for developing their mining sectors sustainably.

For example, it notes Latin America’s abundance of copper, iron ore, silver, lithium, aluminum, nickel, manganese and zinc, as putting the region in an “excellent position” to supply the global transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future. The report also highlights the key role countries in southern Africa can play with their abundant reserves of platinum, manganese, bauxite and chromium. It further underscores China’s wealth of both production and reserve levels of almost all types of metals required for the transition, and India’s dominance in iron, steel and titanium. It also notes the opportunities for Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in bauxite and nickel, and emphasizes New Caledonia as a further source of nickel.

The report stresses the opportunities for countries to grow their economies through the low-carbon transition, provided they put long-term strategies in place that enable informed investment decisions for developing their mining sectors sustainably, including policy mechanisms to safeguard local communities and the environment.

The findings show that the demand for individual metals and minerals will be dependent on the types of technologies that emerge, since the composition of specific minerals and metals needed will vary according to the type of technologies that become dominant. For example, it explains that a future in which electric cars are dominant would increase lithium demand, hybrid cars would require lead, and hydrogen cars would require greater supplies of platinum. It further highlights the need for careful long-term planning and policymaking that integrates reliable economic data and market intelligence into sound plans and investments.

The report underlines that alongside economic planning, integrating sustainability, environmental protection, and recycling planning into countries’ policies, investments and operations will be essential to avoid “significant impacts” of the transition on local water systems, ecosystems, and communities. [World Bank Press Release] [Publication: The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals for a Low-Carbon Future]