Military diverting critical materials from renewables

A huge amount of critical mineral mining is ‘not essential’ for the green transition, new analysis from the UK-based campaigning organisation Global Justice Now has found. 

The analysis has today been published in a new report, titled ‘Material realities: who needs critical minerals and at whose expense?’.

Global Justice Now is demanding the UK government ensures just global governance of minerals, by prioritising only the most necessary minerals for the energy transition, and clearly planning a reduction in demand and consumption. 

Mining

Cleodie Rickard, trade campaign manager at Global Justice Now, said: “Discussions around ‘critical minerals’ obscure the fact that huge amounts of minerals are ‘critical’ for the profits of the likes of the military industry and not for phasing out fossil fuels – with questionable gains for ordinary people here, and devastating consequences for communities overseas.

“We can’t build a green future on the exploitation of poorer countries, and we don’t have to. We can achieve a green transition, but there’s a need to transform how our economy works. 

“By shifting our mineral demand away from militarisation and towards renewable energy generation, while embedding supply chain justice and fair terms of trade in genuinely unavoidable extraction, we can start to realise this vision.”

It finds that almost one in five of the UK’s list of 33 minerals designated as critical plays no role at all in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) green transition pathway. For a further 15 minerals, only a small proportion of current global production is likely to be needed for the transition by 2040.

The report also reveals that only seven minerals designated as critical would require significant increases above current mining and production levels to facilitate the IEA’s 2040 net zero scenario. Most of these minerals would be needed for electric vehicles (EVs) under this pathway. 

Appease

The report argues that the IEA’s renewable energy generation goals can be accommodated within existing levels of mineral production through small diversions of minerals from other uses, and increased investment in measures such as free and accessible public transport as an alternative to mass private EV ownership.

The research also shows that five of the UK’s ‘critical’ minerals irrelevant to the IEA transition are in demand by the defence and aerospace industries. The defence and aerospace industries are also increasing demand for eight transition-relevant minerals.

The report argues that although critical minerals have long been touted as essential primarily for the green transition, moves to increase critical mineral production are being increasingly driven by the demands of other industries including defence.

This comes as the UK government commits to large increases in military spending, partly funded through controversial cuts to the foreign aid budget, and an announcement of financing for critical mineral importers to benefit “defence, aerospace and EV battery makers.”