National resilience of critical raw materials – An open workshop
As said by Ursula von der Leyen in her 2022 State of the Union address, “lithium and rare earths are already replacing gas and oil at the heart of our economy”. Critical materials such as these will continue to rise in importance within the green transition due to their importance in new technology, batteries, and renewable energy production.
The World Bank even forecasts an increase in demand of up to 500 percent through 2050 for minerals such as graphite, lithium, and cobalt. But how will we source the materials we need? Recycling will play an important role, but most of the materials we need far exceed our recycling possibilities. New materials need to be extracted to meet the growing demand, and strategic commodities must be identified to lower dependency. The new EU Critical Raw Materials Act highlights this further, as well as other initiatives such as the EU Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) and the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) to mention a few.
Innovation resulting in better technologies, lower environmental and social impact as well as better, more efficient policies will be crucial for securing the supply of minerals and metals for the green transition. But how do we prioritize among all the important commodities in the long critical raw materials list from the EU? Which time frames apply, how hard would a halt in imports hit if it happened tomor-row, or five years from now? What are the biggest dependencies within a nation, dependencies that for example could put a lot of people out of their jobs? And what are the ways forward, which policies could be developed, strategic alliances formed, and which key technologies should be the focus for innovation going for-ward?
Welcome to an open workshop on critical raw materials and resilience, where the questions above will be explored. The workshop will open with an analysis by experts from RMGC and Vinnova. The event is marketed towards both the private and public sectors as well as academia and NGOs, take the chance to meet with colleagues from across the globe to discuss this important topic!
Speakers
- Pontus Westrin, Programme Manager, Vinnova
- Anton Löf, Director, RMGC