UN experts call for global system to trace critical minerals

RFI

13 September 2024 at 1:13 am·1-min read

UN experts have called for the creation of a global system to trace the extraction and production of critical minerals that are needed in the transition away from fossil fuels.

The massive effort to develop renewable energy, essential in the fight against climate change, requires minerals and metals such as copper, cadmium, nickel and lithium, necessary for electric vehicle batteries, solar panels and more.

Demand for such materials will quadruple by 2040 as nations race to limit global warming to +1.5 degrees Celsius, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated.

The experts – representatives from non-governmental organisations and various countries' mining and environment ministries – are part of a UN committee set up in April by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to draw up guardrails in the face of the looming energy revolution.

"We established the panel in response to calls from developing countries, amid signs that the energy transition could reproduce and amplify inequalities of the past," Guterres said Wednesday.

He asked the panel to share its recommendations with UN member states ahead of November's COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

"We will bring the UN system together to support implementation of the panel's work, safeguarding and advancing human rights, including the rights of Indigenous Peoples, across the critical minerals value chain," Guterres said.

Africa 'bleeding'

In a report released Wednesday, the committee put forward seven guiding principles.

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