Critical Minerals: The Hidden Backbone of the Clean Energy Transition

Critical Minerals: The Hidden Backbone of the Clean Energy Transition

The road from fossil fuels to clean energy is paved with minerals. Copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt are no longer niche resources they are the building blocks of solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that demand for these minerals could grow sixfold by 2050, with a market value surpassing 400 billion dollars. That figure would even exceed the value of all the coal mined in 2020.

To meet the Paris Agreement goals, the world will need more than three billion tonnes of transition minerals. But while the stakes are clear, the path is complex.

The Double-Edged Sword of Critical Minerals

The clean energy boom cannot happen without these resources, yet their extraction and processing carry heavy risks:

• Mining is energy intensive, generating large volumes of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Local environments suffer from biodiversity loss, water contamination, and pollution.
• Communities often pay the highest price, facing human rights abuses, child labour, and threats to indigenous rights.

On top of that, supply remains volatile. Rising prices, geopolitical tensions, and market interference are already fueling uncertainty and putting pressure on governments to expand mining into sensitive regions. If this imbalance continues, the energy transition could become slower, more expensive, and more unequal.

Toward Responsible Mining and Circular Use

The challenge is not only about securing enough minerals, but doing so responsibly. A truly just transition must combine responsible sourcing, material efficiency, recycling, and substitution. That means:

• Designing mobility, housing, and industry systems that use fewer raw resources.
• Investing in circularity so materials are reused instead of discarded.
• Ensuring extraction practices protect communities and ecosystems rather than exploit them.

Rethinking the Mineral Value Chain

Mineral governance must extend beyond mine sites. Building a sustainable future requires international cooperation, transparent markets, and fairer trade systems. Accountability must be built into the entire value chain from extraction to processing to final use.

Here, digital tools like blockchain and product passports can play a game-changing role, allowing consumers, investors, and regulators to trace materials and make informed choices. Transparency builds trust, and trust is the only way to create resilient supply chains.

A New UN Initiative

Recognizing both the urgency and the risks, the United Nations has launched a new initiative to harness critical energy transition minerals for sustainable development. Led by UNEP and other UN agencies, the initiative aims to build reliability, resilience, and fair benefit-sharing into supply chains.

• Phase 1: Developing a UN Framework on Just Transitions for Critical Minerals by the end of 2024, guided by a high-level panel announced at COP28.
• Phase 2: Testing the framework in least developed and land-locked countries, with tailored tools, legal support, and capacity-building.

The message is clear: the clean energy transition cannot succeed if it repeats the injustices of the fossil fuel era. Critical minerals must not only fuel renewable technologies but also create fairer economies, healthier communities, and sustainable ecosystems.

🔑 In short: Critical minerals are the backbone of renewable energy, but they carry risks that could undermine the very goals they are meant to serve. By embedding responsibility, transparency, and circularity into supply chains, the world can ensure these resources drive a clean and just energy future.