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Critical Raw Materials and the Challenge of Climate Crisis in the New Millennium
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
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The green and the digital revolutions are intimately linked. Mastery of one technology will likely lead to leadership in the other. Both depend on ample supplies of critical materials, rare earth elements and other vital resources. Unfortunately, many are in short supply and demand for them will explode as those two revolutions unfold. Governments have awakened to vulnerabilities created by their need for these materials and are making efforts, with limited success, to ensure continued access to them. Given the consequences of leadership in both the green and digital arenas, it is not surprising that access to critical raw materials has become a geopolitical battleground.
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References
Notes
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9 Executive Order 13817, “A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies,” 82 Federal Register 60835 (2017). The full list of critical materials in 2020 included aluminum (bauxite), antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cesium, chromium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite (natural), hafnium, helium, indium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, niobium, platinum group metals, potash, the rare earth elements group, rhenium, rubidium, scandium, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium, and zirconium.
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21 Umbach, The New ‘Rare Metal Age‘“, p. 3
22 Adrian Davidse and Jacek Guzek, “Trend No. 10: Meeting demand for green and critical minerals,” February 1, 2021.
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31 Stephen Lezak, Charles Cannon and, Thomas Koch Blank, “Low-Carbon Metals for a Low-Carbon World: A New Energy Paradigm for Mines,” Rocky Mountain Institute, 2019, p. 11, https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Low-Carbon_Metals_for_a_Low-Carbon_World.pdf
32 Umbach, The New ‘Rare Metal Age,‘“ p. 23.
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34 Adrian Davidse and Jacek Guzek, “Trend No. 10: Meeting demand for green and critical minerals,” February 1, 2021.
35 International Energy Agency, “The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions,” May 2021, p. 12.
36 International Energy Agency, “The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions,” May 2021, p. 5 (hereafter IEA Report).
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38 Adrian Davidse and Jacek Guzek, “Trend No. 10: Meeting demand for green and critical minerals,” February 1, 2021.
39 Umbach, The New ‘Rare Metal Age,‘“ p. 20.
40 Christopher Sheldon, “The New Kids on the Block: Redefining ‘critical’ minerals essential for a clean energy future,” The World Bank, May 11, 2020.
41 Umbach, The New ‘Rare Metal Age‘“, p. 19.
42 Wilson, Strategies for Security Critical Supply Chain Materials,“ p. 10
43 Umbach, The New ‘Rare Metal Age‘“ p. 18.
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49 EU Strategic Dependency Update, p. 57
50 Cited in Keith Bradsher, “Amid tension, China blocks vital exports to Japan,” The New York Times, September 22, 2010.
51 Zhang Hui, “China relies more heavily on mineral imports”, Global Times, 11 July 2018
52 Umbach, The New ‘Rare Metal Age,‘“ p. 22-23.
53 Andrew L. Gulley, Nedal T. Nassar, Sean Xun, “China, the United States, and competition for resources that enable emerging technologies,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences April 2018, 115 (16) p. 4111, at doi:10.1073/pnas.1717152115
54 European Commission, “European Commission Foresight Study,” p. 76.
55 Wilson, “Strategies for Security Critical Supply Chain Materials,” p. 6.
56 The White House, “Building Resilient Supply Chains, Revitalizing American Manufacturing and Fostering Broad Based Growth,” June 2021, pp. 194-201.
57 Jane Nakano, “The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals Supply Chains,” CSIS, March 2021 and Wilson, “Strategies for Security Critical Supply Chain Materials,” provide excellent surveys of Japanese policy. Their work, along with that of Andrew DeWit, renders a more in-depth review here redundant.
58 Davidse and Guzek, “Trend No. 10: Meeting demand for green and critical minerals.”
59 Nakano, “The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals Supply Chains,” p. 6.
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