CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS FOR THE ENERGY TRANSITION

With the climate crisis all but a reality, the European Union has formulated an ambitious Green Deal aiming to ensure:

• no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
• economic growth that is decoupled from resource use
• no person and no place left behind

Raw materials are at the heart of this Green Deal: metals such as iron, copper, and lithium as well as a vast array of rare earth metals that will replace the fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas.

The energy transition, all the more urgent now that the EU wants to become independent of Russian gas, is a monumental undertaking that stretches global supply chains. Conversely, global supply chain disruptions can seriously affect the energy transition.

In this whitepaper, researchers from Leiden-Delft-Erasmus share their perspective on the global dependencies and geopolitical aspects that play a role in acquiring the much-needed raw materials to achieve the energy transition – how we got where we are now, and how we can reduce our dependencies going forward.