The world faces a shortage of minerals needed for the energy transition

The world is facing a shortage of the minerals needed to make the electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels, and other clean energy technologies essential to ending its reliance on fossil fuels.

The world is facing a shortage of the minerals needed to make the electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels, and other clean energy technologies essential to ending its reliance on fossil fuels. The Paris-based International Energy Agency said in a report published Friday that steep drops in the prices of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite last year were “good news for consumers” but discouraged investment in the mining of those critical minerals. The world is on track meet only 70% of global copper demand and 50% of lithium demand by 2035, the agency added. “The world’s appetite for technologies such as solar panels, electric cars and batteries is growing fast — but we cannot satisfy it without reliable and expanding supplies of critical minerals,” Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said in a statement. Investment in critical minerals mining grew 10% last year, a rate the agency says is “healthy, but slower than in 2022.” The IEA forecast that investors would need to pour $800 billion into mining projects between now and 2040 to stand a chance of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.