India, China on UN panel to draft globally acceptable norms for critical mineral use

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 26

India is among the 22 countries that are part of a special United Nations (UN) panel tasked with drafting globally acceptable guidance on the use of critical mineral value chains that are key to the goal of limiting global warming and transiting to cleaner fuels.

Limiting global warming

• At COP28, governments agreed to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 towards the goal of limiting global warming
• There’s no way to do this without boosting the supply of critical energy transition minerals and ensuring their judicious use

Rising demand

Critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements are essential components of clean energy technologies, including wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles and battery storage. The rising demand for these minerals — to fuel the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy — presents risks. The UN panel will develop a set of global common and voluntary principles to guide governments and other stakeholders involved in critical minerals value chains by addressing issues relating to equity, transparency, investment, sustainability and human rights.

In a world heading to net zero by 2050, the International Energy Agency projects demand for critical minerals (copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements) multiplying three and a half times over this decade.

With the ever growing needs for minerals needed to develop renewable energy technologies, the newly established UN Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals will address issues relating to equity, transparency, investment, sustainability and human rights.

It will be co-chaired by Ambassador Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-Diseko of South Africa and Director-General for Energy Ditte Juul Jørgensen of the European Commission and will have India among government members alongside the EU, UK and China.

“A world powered by renewables is a world hungry for copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals. Electric cars need six times more of these minerals than cars powered by fossil fuels. Offshore wind farms need 13 times more than similar gas power plants. Between now and the end of this decade, the share of electricity generated by fossil fuels must fall from 60 to 30 per cent. And the share generated by renewables must rise from 30 to 60 per cent — according to the IEA. Critical minerals are at the core of this shift,” UN secretary General António Guterres said at the launch of the panel in New York on Friday, calling for just and equitable use of critical minerals.

Noting that developing countries with large reserves of critical minerals had a crucial opportunity to create jobs and boost revenues, the top UN official also acknowledged that the production of critical minerals often left a toxic cloud of pollution, wounded communities, and lost childhoods in its wake.

“This must change. Developing countries cannot be shackled to the bottom of the clean energy value chain — relegated to suppliers of basic raw materials,” Guterres said.

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