Vekasi co-authors paper on mineral supply infrastructure gap
The transition to green technologies has been steadily ramping up in terms of scale all over the globe in recent years. What this means, however, is that the access to the minerals necessary for crafting the infrastructure for those green technologies has never been more important.
As international tensions heighten in the face of geopolitical events – particularly among world powers such as the United States, China and Russia – countries have begun to re-examine their mineral production capabilities. For countries like China, with robustl mining and processing operations, negative impacts are at least somewhat muted as their mineral supplies continue to grow.
But for a country like the U.S., or any other country which is currently short on metal supply, decoupling from the largest mineral supplier in the world could have a catastrophic impact on the green tech transition.
An interdisciplinary group of researchers from academia and industry has written an article in the Environmental Science and Technology scientific journal – titled Closing the Infrastructure Gap for Decarbonization: The Case for an Integrated Mineral Supply Agreement – addressing this problem and proposing a possible solution.
Among the authors is Kristin Vekasi, associate professor in the Department of Political Science and School of Policy & International Affairs at the University of Maine.
“In order to transition from fossil fuel use, the world needs many more minerals such as rare earths, cobalt, platinum, lithium, and more,” Vekasi said. “Unfortunately, there are many obstacles to ramping up production, including environmental concerns about mining and processing of the minerals, and also risks from geographic concentration along mineral supply chains.
“In particular, because China has a commanding market share in many of these minerals, geopolitical tensions between the United States and China has hampered a coordinated effort to increase supply,” she continued. “This paper argues that existing international arrangements such as the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) or the G20 can help countries coordinate to increase mineral supplies in a safer, cleaner, and more transparent way and eliminate a barrier to the transition to green energy.”
Vekasi also spoke to the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to this complex topic.
“Everyone who contributed to this paper has worked on related issues for years,” said Vekasi. “The interdisciplinary team challenged our set assumptions and strengthened the analysis and policy recommendations we made in the paper.”
She went on to speak to the ways in which experts from different spheres viewed issues in different ways: the economist analyzed market interventionist policies differently than the political scientists, the political scientists analyzed geopolitical struggle in different ways than the geographer, and so on. In addition, the paper included people from the realm of industry, who had their own specific perspectives to contribute.
Vekasi expressed a degree of optimism that papers such as this one could help motivate a more concerted response to these looming concerns.
“We are hoping that major players in the critical mineral world will push for a global coordinated response to the widely recognized issues such as current supply must increase dramatically to meet coming demand, geographic concentration in mining and post-mining processing and refinement introduces supply chain risks, environmental damage, and health risks to surrounding communities,” she said. “Currently there are a variety of disparate efforts (one example is the US-led Mineral Security Partnership announced this summer) but most exclude the major player in the field: China.”
The proximity of the paper’s release to the U.N. Climate Change Summit, which took place from November 6-18 in Glasgow, Scotland – also could prove beneficial.
“This month is one where people are really focused on climate problems and solutions,” Vekasi said. “I see this paper and broader project as a really important component to solving some climate-related challenges.”
A book that will delve much deeper into the assorted issues raised in the paper is planned for publication next year; Vekasi’s chapter focuses on mitigating political risks in the rare earth supply chain.