This is exchanges at Goldman Sachs where we discuss developments currently shaping markets, industries, and the global economy.

I'm Allison Nathan, a senior strategist within Goldman Sachs research.

My guest today is Nick Snowden, also of Goldman Sachs research, who's out with new research on

copper and its critical role in meeting the

world's electricity needs. Nick, welcome to the program. Great, thank you. Thanks for

having me. Nick, you and your team published a report earlier this year that said that

copper is the new oil, meaning that it's

now the strategically most important resource in the commodity complex. Why is copper

so strategically important today? Well I think when you look at the Paris climate goals and ultimately the

path to net zero emissions if that's going to be achieved predominantly via abatement, i.e. via electrification and renewable energy, then copper is going to be the most critical

raw material to achieving that goal because it's the most cost effective conductive metal.

It's used in capturing, storing, transporting electricity.

And when you look at the really key areas of the green economy, whether it's electric vehicles,

electric vehicle infrastructure, renewables, wind turbines, solar.

Copper is used in much more intensive volume levels than in the old economy equivalent.

But I think the other parallel to oil and certainly oil in the 2000s

relates to the lack of supply side preparation for this demand boom and I think that's equally important to why we're talking

about copper because I think you've got this very strong green demand story but you

also have a supply side that's completely unprepared there's no real investment in

new mine projects and so essentially the copper market is sleep

walking into a really sizable supply crunch akin to what we saw in the oil market back in the

2000s.

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