Businesses are worried about critical raw material supplies, but they also have the answer – Inside track

The prime minister officially launched the UK-led Global Clean Power Alliance at the G20 summit in Rio this week. It was a strong show of climate leadership. The headline aim is to “unite countries to speed up the clean energy transition globally, while bolstering the UK’s energy security”, and the first focus area is the finance mission. The aim of this is to unlock private investment on a large scale to ensure no developing country is left behind. 

But, to achieve these laudable aims – a global clean energy transition, UK energy security and leaving no country behind – the UK needs to grapple with the elephant in the room that is critical raw materials (CRMs) and how to ensure fair access them.   

Businesses are worried about critical raw material supply
Issues around CRMs aren’t just a growing area of concern for environmental and social justice groups. UK businesses are being increasingly vocal in calling for urgent action. This week, in an initiative led by Green Alliance, industry leaders from major companies including SSE, OVO, Suez, Veolia, Ethical Power, and Good Energy, alongside trade and professional bodies like RenewableUK, The Royal Society of Chemistry, CIWM and IOM3, wrote to the prime minister urging him to strengthen the government’s strategy on critical raw materials. 

They argue that “ensuring fair access to them should be a crucial part of diplomacy around clean energy and a key aim of the Clean Power Alliance” and express their support for an “ambitious strategy that would develop a circular economy for critical raw materials.”  

Recognising that the UK relies almost entirely on imports for all 24 critical raw materials, they suggest that we could “reduce this dependence and risk to businesses and the wider economy by reusing, remanufacturing and recycling these materials domestically.” In asking for greater circularity and material reduction, they emphasise that the UK can protect itself from supply chain risks, invigorate the economy and address the environmental and social challenges associated with global supply chains. 

The UK is failing to capitalise on circular economy opportunities
The businesses also highlighted in their letter to the PM that, so far, the UK has failed to capitalise on opportunities to keep materials in circulation at their highest value once they are in the country; and it’s not yet clear that the new government is prioritising this either, although a new circular economy strategy for England is in the works.  

In his inaugural speech at Kew Gardens in September, Foreign Secretary David Lammy did highlight the urgent need to secure supplies of critical minerals, comparing the current global scramble for them to past competitions over oil. He emphasised the importance of diversifying production and supply, calling them “the lifeblood of the new economy” and urged that they be brought to market faster.  

This call to accelerate the green transition was very welcome, but it is a shame he didn’t highlight possible measures to reduce the need to mine new materials. Simply ramping up extraction is not sustainable, even if mining practices are made more responsible. Demand reduction, reuse, recycling and remanufacturing will need to be integral to any CRM strategy. Our past research has shown that economy wide measures, including improving energy efficiency and investing in public transport, could halve the need for some CRMs by 2035. 

We are building up a sustainable stockpile of CRMs in this country, unseen in existing products and infrastructure, and it is sensible to make use of these again once they reach the end of their first life, rather than exporting them and reimporting them again in new products, as currently happens. Unlike fossil fuels, many of these materials only need to be extracted once and, if they’re handled properly, can be reused again and again.  

Scaling up new supply chain businesses in CRM reuse, remanufacturing and recycling here in the UK would allow that, as well as creating new jobs and easing the pressures on security of supply.  

The Global Clean Power Alliance is a unique opportunity for the UK to champion this circularity and material reduction in the energy industry worldwide. Doing something about it sooner rather than later will reduce business risks and align with David Lammy’s call for more responsible supply chains.  

As the foreign secretary rightly warned, “We cannot let this become a source of conflict.” International collaboration on this issue and a much more comprehensive circular domestic approach can help to avert that risk, give businesses what they need and set us on the path to a more sustainable, clean energy future.

Image credit to Number 10 on Flickr.