14 experts on implementing responsible resource use as the energy transition accelerates

As the energy transition picks up, it has never been more important that we use our limited global resources responsibly.

Renewable energy technologies are our most important lever to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But wind turbines, batteries and solar panels depend on minerals and metals such as copper, lithium, nickel and others.

The way we extract, use and dispose of these minerals affects our economic growth and environmental and social well-being. We must ensure we limit GHG emissions, excessive water use, human rights violations and harmful impacts on biodiversity and local communities across the whole value chain.

Minimizing harmful effects alone is not sufficient. We must realize the growth potential that this opportunity represents, particularly in emerging and developing economies, by deepening and diversify these economies’ roles in material processing and undertaking larger parts of the supply chain.

Here, 14 experts share how we can promote responsible extraction and sustainable circularity and implement responsible resource use.

Gillian Davidson, Sustainability Adviser to the Chief Executive Officer, Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), Co-chair of the GFC on Responsible Resource Use

The highly globalized and often opaque nature of mineral supply chains inhibits policy-makers, businesses and consumers from having sight of how critical minerals are sourced and used. This lack of transparency and disclosure means decision-makers lack the information needed to support responsible practices, sustainable circular economies and accountability to affected communities.

Three factors are needed to create meaningful transparency for responsible mineral use. First, highly globalized value chains demand a global multistakeholder approach to collectively agree and shape the approach including the harmonizations of transparency rules and requirements to avoid competition, conflict and confusion. Second, information and data needs to be trusted, authenticated and tracked across the full lifecycle with organizations and systems being developed to provide these platforms. Third, transparency must capture the most important ESG parameters of sourcing and use. An example relevant to the energy transition is the Battery Passport from the Global Battery Alliance.

Benita Kayembe, Senior Program and Research Coordinator, Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program, Harvard University

Jemilah Mahmood, Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, Sunway University

Including local communities is essential for the responsible use of critical minerals. Human rights considerations are equally important. By actively involving local and Indigenous groups in decision-making, business and government can ensure that resource extraction aligns with international human rights standards and respects Indigenous land rights.

Additionally, local communities can contribute to circular solutions, such as recycling programmes for critical minerals, which reduce the need for further exploitation and promote a just, sustainable resource economy.

Local communities must be engaged planning to implementation. Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is one example of ensuring their full participation and autonomy.

Collaborative governance between communities, governments and corporations is key, with partnerships focused on monitoring, benefit-sharing and decision-making. Communities should gain long-term benefits like jobs and infrastructure. Ecosystems should be safeguarded. Transparency and accountability from all stakeholders help build trust and ensure local voices are central to decision-making for a just, sustainable future.

Billy Mawasha, CEO - Kolobe Nala Investments, South Africa

Investment across the value chain of critical minerals is essential for achieving responsible resource use. As demand for these resources grows, prioritizing ethical mining practices and sustainable extraction methods becomes increasingly important. Some $800 billion of investment in mining is needed to get on track for 1.5°C by 2040.

However, not all investment is equal. By directing funds toward safe, environmentally friendly technologies and practices, we can significantly reduce the ecological footprint of mining operations. Such investments also promote social responsibility by ensuring fair labour practices and supporting local communities economically.

Collaborating with stakeholders to build a robust framework for sustainable resource management and investment can lead to innovations that enhance the resilience of the entire supply chain. This approach secures a stable supply of critical minerals and aligns economic interests with environmental and social considerations.

Jon Creyts, Chief Executive Officer, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

Humanity’s current consumption pace is nearly double what the earth can reasonably sustain. Nowhere is this single-use economy more evident than in fossil fuel use, where 40 billion tons of heat-trapping pollution are dumped into the atmosphere each year. Even worse, the current system sends two-thirds of its energy input — worth over $4.6 trillion annually — up in smoke.

Unlike fossil fuels, the materials used for batteries, solar cells and wind turbines offer enormous economic potential for reuse. Remarkably, the cumulative mass of materials needed to support the clean energy transition through 2050 is less than the amount of coal currently extracted each year. By re-engineering material flows, we can keep scarce high-value resources in circulation and reduce our dependence on ongoing extraction.

Achieving a circular economy requires a systems approach from policymakers, businesses, communities and other stakeholders, who must align policies, develop markets and monitor performance to ensure resources are continuously reused and repurposed.

Pranshu Singhal, Founder & Director, Karo Sambhav

To enable material circularity on a population scale, three areas need dedicated action.

First, establishing wide-reaching collection systems across various locations to make it easy for people to participate in recycling responsibly. Depending on the type of waste, many people expect monetary compensation in return for giving their waste, impacting the overall system’s cost for set-up and operation of these systems.

Second, high-quality, environmentally sounds and depollution-focused recycling infrastructure is essential. This must be backed by monitoring and globally standardized reporting. These units must be capable of maximizing secondary material extraction, with a special focus on critical raw materials, embedded in components, without degrading their quality.

Finally, secondary materials must be used in new products. This requires harmonized technical specifications of secondary materials. Secondary materials need to match the consistency in quality and quantity required to replace virgin materials in the manufacturing process. Policy measures are required to catalyze the use of recycled content in products.

Laila Iskandar, Founder and Member of the Board, CID Consulting

In the Global South, communities have designed ways to harvest mineral resources from waste, creating 17 jobs for every ton of materials discarded in cities like Cairo and others. They have transformed their occupations from basic collectors into processors, manufacturers and traders of recycled material.

We need to pre-empt this happening in the battery circular economy. 10 million jobs could be created by skilling recycling workforce — this must be done in a manner that will avoid the negative aspects of their trade, such as danger, but keep the elements that contribute to their local industry. These include: small size enterprises; privately owned family businesses; locally situated workshops; flexible working models; appropriate technology use; formally allocated land for their enterprises; social protection and education for their children.

We need also to design new value chains, Extended Producer Responsibility systems and equitable sharing of benefits from the circular economy for all.

Jocelyne Landry Tsonang, Non-Executive Director African Circular Economy Network Project Manager for Africa, Green Bond Corporation

The current critical minerals and other resources used for the energy transition value chain have been established on an exploitative history. Unless these models are rebalanced, the use of resources will continue to foster injustices and perpetuate existing energy inequities worldwide.

While global investments in renewables have been steadily increasing, Africa's growth has been slower. For instance, in 2021, global investments surpassed $300 billion, while Africa attracted only $10.5 billion. Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) supplies over 70% of the world’s cobalt, and Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa hold significant lithium reserves. One-third of the world’s proven bauxite reserves can be found in just three African economies: Ghana, Sierra Leone and Guinea. South Africa also possesses large deposits of rare earth minerals.

A just approach to the energy transition's resource value chain would recognize that Africa is not just a mineral sourcing ground; it could also serve as a manufacturing hub. This shift would help reduce the carbon footprint of renewable energy production and improve the supply chain within Africa.

Sven Teske, Associate Professor and Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

About 85% of the global total investment of well over $600 billion in new power plants went to renewables in 2023. Thus, the energy transition requires solutions to master the ‘climate-energy-resources nexus’.

Meeting the increasing demand for minerals and metals to build batteries for electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure and consumer electronics requires sustainable, alternative pathways. Rather than expanding resource exploitation, the challenge of the 21st century is to use resources more efficiently. This includes identifying key materials required for a 1.5°C Paris-aligned decarbonization pathway, comparing these needs with current mineral supplies and minimizing material demand through greater efficiency and recycling rates.

However, new resource and material requirements come with social and environmental impacts that are already changing the geopolitical landscape. As millions of new jobs are created in these emerging sectors, millions more will disappear. A change management strategy that anticipates these new material pathways is essential for economic stability and social resilience.

Felipe Valencia-Dongo, Managing Partner, Strategy Group

The success of sourcing minerals for the energy transition heavily relies on a pivotal factor: social acceptance. Without it, many of the required projects could face significant delays or might not be developed at all. To build social acceptance, we must focus on four essential action lines: comprehensive and permanent territorial understanding; strategic communication; community and value chain win-win (building external social bases); and constructing internal social bases (workers and their families). Failure to build social acceptance could result in delays, increased costs and, ultimately, the failure to accelerate the energy transition and meet our climate targets.

We have the opportunity to create a sustainable and socially inclusive future. Achieving social acceptance is not easy, but it is indispensable to move forward in executing the energy transition.

Dr Juliana Segura-Salazar, Research Fellow, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland

To drive meaningful change, circularity must integrate sustainability by design at scale, even at the very first step: extraction. Globally, we need a shift in thinking — from focusing on recycling as an end-of-pipe solution in predominantly linear systems to actively preventing waste and reducing environmental impacts at their source. This transformation requires a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach, where innovation is fostered and knowledge is shared openly.

There is encouraging progress with, for example, the creation of a global alliance for zero waste mining to allow for producing novel materials such as ore-sand. It is now time to increase global collaboration to minimize the potential negative effects of mining and create new economic opportunities at the same time.

Anisa Kamadoli Costa, Chief Sustainability Officer, Rivian, Trustee & President, Rivian Foundation

Companies across the value chain, policymakers, NGOs and other stakeholders must ensure that there is innovation in circularity as well as an acknowledgement that the expansion of extractive industries required for the energy transition will continue and must yield benefits to all involved and protect ecosystems.

The role of purchasers of these minerals will be pivotal. They need to gain visibility into an expanded range of associated environmental and social impacts, including biodiversity and human rights considerations, and work to reduce and mitigate these impacts by reinforcing responsible standards within our supply chains.

One key strategy will be participating in multistakeholder initiatives and standards, such as the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), which reflect best-practices in stakeholder engagement, governance and transparency.

Yen Chen, Principal Economist, Center for Automotive Research

When it comes to the automotive industry's rapid transition to EVs, a critical blind spot is often overlooked.

First, it is important to acknowledge that batteries have been getting larger and more mineral-intensive over the past 20 years, contradicting the goal of reducing resource use. These require growing amounts of minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel and other minerals. This trend has combined with an undue focus on battery EVs as the primary solution for reducing GHG emissions. By focusing exclusively on battery EVs for decarbonization, we risk overlooking the escalating environmental impacts of mining and producing these batteries

There are, however, solutions. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, for instance, use fewer critical minerals and could complement battery-EVs in reducing the impact of mining for batteries.

We need not only reduce fossil fuel consumption but also minimize the demand for minerals. A balanced approach that embraces multiple technologies — battery electric, hydrogen, hybrids and potentially more — can pave the way for a more sustainable future.

Ma Linwei, Associate Professor, Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University

Mineral scarcity is a real threat that may yet hamper the energy transition. To avoid this situation, we must invest in technological innovation, management innovation and new layout of supply chains in material production and processing. On top of aiming to do more with the same minerals, we must understand alternatives and explore material substitutions.

These endeavours are complex and require more investment in research on the potential synergies across different issues. Unfortunately, the collaboration between research institutes, academia, government and private sector is not set up to understand those interdependencies in time for action. There is a tension between the time academics and researchers need to fund projects, execute them and provide informed opinions and the shorter timeline the private sector and government demand.

We must create new collaboration models to integrate scientific insights from the inception of projects, rather than asking the study their consequences after they have been completed.