The hottest reason why low-carbon economy will dri

Why will low-carbon economy drive rare earth demand

the world may be low-carbon in the future, but it may not be low-metal, which is the conclusion of a recent study by the world bank. The study analyzed the changes in demand for specific minerals and rare earth metals around the world due to the progress of clean and renewable energy technology. The report attempts to fill the gap in the analysis of climate change and global warming scenarios in previous research fields. It acknowledges that "people usually pay little attention to the impact of achieving a low/zero carbon future on the demand for metals". The World Bank found that developing clean energy technologies to meet the requirements of the Paris climate agreement may require a large amount of rare earth metals and other raw materials

Riccardo puliti, head of the world bank's energy and extraction practice group, said: "As part of the transition to a low-carbon economy, we have seen the widespread use of renewable energy technologies, which now account for about 17% of global energy consumption. He is optimistic that this trend will continue. 7. Carry out chemical composition analysis and metallographic analysis. However, since the use of clean energy has not yet reached the level required by the agreement, it is not clear how much the cost of global transformation is.

in order to engage in Aware of this problem, the World Bank launched a commodity demand forecast to 2050. These forecasts attempt to estimate how technological improvements in wind, solar and energy storage batteries will make renewable energy more attractive in the near future. At the same time, the research recognizes that the results show that infrared technology can be used to identify the supply of rare earth metals in recycled plastics, which may determine the development speed of clean energy technology

the study predicted more than a dozen different metals, ranging from relatively common iron, steel and aluminum to relatively rare in, molybdenum and Li. All these are raw materials for building solar photovoltaic, wind turbines and energy storage batteries

the world bank believes that the progress of alternative energy technology and the incremental demand for rare earth metals may be a good opportunity for resource rich developing countries to develop their economies

by analyzing various minerals and metals required for clean energy production, it is found that the concerns of countries around the world about China's control of rare earth metal production are not widespread. At present, China does dominate many of the raw materials used to produce batteries, solar panels and wind turbines. However, China's natural resources are not rich in all necessary raw materials, such as platinum and Palladium for catalytic converters, and China produces very little

although the study recognizes that China has a "global dominant position" in the supply of rare earth metals, it also points out that it is bound to become a milestone in the development of friendly cooperation between China and Mongolia. The progress of alternative energy technology will create global opportunities for other mineral mining in all regions of the world, especially in South America and Central America. This partly reflects that the market knows little about the distribution of rare earth metals in the world. Most developing countries do not carry out the necessary geological exploration to find these metals, because these metals are often associated with other raw materials

"it is worth noting that no developing country region, except China, Brazil, India and Malaysia, has access to recorded rare earth metal production, reserves or resource data. The report found that although these key metals can be found in these regions, they did not make efforts to accurately find their existence"

of course, we will still treat these predictions with skepticism. Although this study offers several different possibilities for the technological development path needed to sharply reduce carbon emissions in the future, researchers acknowledge that achieving the ambitious 2050 goal still depends on significant changes in energy transmission and storage technologies. Achieving the goals of the Paris climate agreement will require an almost unpredictable level of technological progress, and may even eventually find that it has only slowed the pace of global warming, not stopped

the researchers pointed out that "it is clear that since the beginning of this century, meeting the Paris climate goal of no more than 2 degrees Celsius (2 ° C) (and making every effort to reach 1.5 ° C) will require a radical (i.e. fundamental) restructured energy supply and transmission system". At the same time, even these relatively small changes will be at the cost of consuming a large amount of raw material costs

"in addition, it is reported that the establishment of clean energy (wind, solar, H2 and power systems) transmission technology is actually more important than the current traditional fossil fuel based energy supply system"

in this regard, the report recognizes the difficulties that countries will face in trying to achieve the noble goals set out in the Paris climate agreement. Not only will today's technological predictions be overturned, but the demand for certain required metals will increase significantly. The World Bank estimates that the demand for Li will soar by 1480%, and the demand for in will also soar by 146%

if the demand reaches this level, the price of the required materials will undoubtedly become prohibitive. Relevant details are not in the scope of this analysis for the time being, "said Graeme Herlihy, general manager of Engel Western Europe

the report is also constrained by the technical difficulty of predicting 30 years later. Today, our best prediction is to assume that we can combine wind and solar energy and use new battery technology to store energy for future use. However, in the coming decades, what unexpected directions may new research turn clean energy technology? In the field of green and clean energy, these are still unknown