CIFExpress | Critical Metals: a Challenge for the European Energy Transition | Gilles Lepesant

Описание: Critical metals are key to a successful energy transition and a low-carbon future. With its necessary radical shift to renewable energies and electric vehicles, a low-carbon economy will require enormous quantities of metals. For instance, EU demand for rare earth metals is expected to increase six-fold by 2030 and seven-fold by 2050; for lithium forecasts foresee even a twelve-fold increase of EU demand by 2030 and twenty-one-fold by 2050. What are the geopolitical, social and environmental risks associated with the extraction of these rare metals? And what is the European Union doing to address these issues?

In this CIFExpress interview, Gilles Lepesant, Research Director in Geography at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), addresses some of the major questions related to the extraction, processing and consumption of critical metals. He also explains the EU’s policy under its recent Critical Raw Materials Act (CRM Act) to diversify the EU’s imports to reduce strategic dependencies, mitigate risks of disruptions to the supply of critical raw materials, and improve circularity and sustainability.

This CIFExpress interview was recorded in October 2023.

Clear. Concise. Current: CIFExpress is CIFE's series of short interviews with experts about topical issues of European and international interest.