To focus on the ‘mineral intensity’ of clean technology is to miss the point – perhaps deliberately… In the next six-to-12 weeks, the world will burn through fossil fuels equivalent to the total natural resources that required by clean technology over the next 28 years.
• The resource requirements of clean technology are a fraction of those of fossil fuel-based systems
• Improving efficiencies in clean-technology manufacturing are reducing waste
• Recycling capacity is scaling up and will cap long-term demand for natural resources
The exponential increase in demand for batteries, solar panels and wind turbines is resulting in exponential growth in demand for the materials they are built with, particularly: lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese.
