资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

This opinion piece by UNEP Economy Division Director Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, with additional input from Inga Petersen, was originally published on 29 March 2022 by The Guardian.

Against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding mining sector, environmental due diligence and responsible sourcing will be key to make the global green energy transition sustainable

Slowly but steadily, the transition to green energy is gathering pace. Despite COVID lockdowns, the share of renewables in global electricity generation jumped to 29% in 2020. The market for electric vehicles is growing even faster. Over six million electric cars were purchased in 2021.

However, to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement and limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C, decarbonisation and electrification of the global economy need to accelerate exponentially. Critical minerals and metals will play an essential role in achieving the green energy transition.

Material requirements of the global energy transition

Whilst recycling and circular design can partially reduce the material needs, an exponential increase in global mineral and metal production will be vital. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that in order to meet the Paris Agreement goals, a quadrupling of mineral requirements for clean energy technologies by 2040 will be necessary.

Mining projects are historically complex, with long lead times from discovery of a deposit to production. Faced with declining quality of ore bodies and in a rush to meet market demand, it is easy to see how financial calculations can override environmental concerns and ignore the true costs of mining.

The expected expansion of the mining sector will have inevitable impacts on the environment, including deforestation, pollution, damage to and loss of biodiversity. These costs, the so-called ‘externalities’, will be borne by ecosystems, landscapes and societies for generations to come.

A spotlight on environmental due diligence

Whilst some degree of corporate human rights due diligence has become standard practice in the sector, the same does not hold true for environmental due diligence. For example, lithium, a critical ingredient for electric car batteries, is extracted in some of the world’s driest places such as the Atacama Desert in South America.

The evaporation techniques used require vast amounts of water with estimates ranging from 500.000 to two million litres per ton. However, no global standard exists to regulate lithium supply chains.

Despite a proliferation of mining industry standards, there is no comprehensive environmental standard. Unless environmental due diligence takes centre stage, manufacturers of renewable energy technologies or electric vehicles will be hard pressed to market their products as sustainable.

We need governments, industry, investors, consumers, and civil society to work together and agree on harmonised and strengthened principles for mining and the environment to ensure that our green transition can be truly sustainable.