The green revolution is fueling environmental destruction

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Meanwhile, a typical offshore wind turbine requires 13 times more metal than a gas-fired power plant per megawatt of capacity.

The International Energy Agency projects that this will push demand for the critical mineral to 42.3 million tons annually by 2050 – up from about 7 million tons in 2020.

Per Calvig, an expert with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, says this will require an “explosion” of mining in the coming years.

They are needed for wind turbines, for electric cars. Europe needs these minerals, and does not want to continue to depend on China for their production,” he explains.

It raises tough questions for the European Union, which believes it will need five times as much rare earth minerals by 2030, a meteoric rise that will require a rapid increase in extraction.

However, whether the practice of actually mining materials within the block will be allowed is another matter.

There are 11 viable lithium projects in Europe, said Maroš Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission, and if they are all commissioned, they could meet nearly two-fifths of EU demand by 2030. They include sites in Finland, Spain, Portugal, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Austria. .

But in Portugal, for example, where there are significant lithium resources, there has been constant opposition from local communities against the new mining plans.

British company Savannah is among those trying to open a project in the northern Barosso region by 2025 with funding from the European Union. It plans to produce about 5,000 tons of lithium annually.

But despite the company’s objections that it is “specifically designed to minimize its impact on the natural environment and local communities where possible” – such as new ways of storing waste and recycling 85% of its water – it has struggled to convince the naysayers.

Also in Sweden, where the largest ever discovery of rare earth oxides in Europe recently took place, progress is proving difficult.

Miner LKAB wants to start production but needs to get a series of permits. Meanwhile, a court battle is still ongoing over the license being revoked in 2016, amid concerns that operations in Nura Karr, in southern Sweden, were polluting the local water supply.

Given the strength of feeling in the communities, Calvig suspects that there is political will in Europe to push through the many local mining schemes.

“In general, we are seeing public resistance against mining projects,” he adds.

But if Europe is unwilling to extract the minerals itself for the green transition, it will simply need to import them from somewhere else – and that usually means Africa and Asia.

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