Securing Europe's supply of critical raw materials

European Parliament - EPRS Policy podcasts

European Parliament Webmaster

Government & Organizations, Non-profit

4.8 • 13 Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Nowadays, a wide range of key technologies across all industries, from chips to batteries, medical imaging to tanks, rely on the unique physical properties of some specific critical raw materials (CRMs). Demand for CRMs is projected to skyrocket in the coming years. However, as the transition to 'net-zero' and the digital age is particularly materials-intensive, it remains uncertain whether supply will keep up with the expected needs. The EU's ambition to become a climate-neutral economy by 2050, and its ability to sustain the green and digital transitions and achieve strategic autonomy, all rely heavily on reliable, secure and resilient access to CRMs.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.
0:05.3	In this podcast, we'll be talking about critical raw materials and how the EU plans to ensure security of supply and cut unwanted dependencies from third countries to sustain its twin digital and green transitions.
0:18.8	Want to know more? Keep listening. Did you know that your
0:23.4	smartphone contains up to 50 different kinds of metals? Or that an electric car requires six
0:29.5	times the amount of minerals of a conventional car? Welcome to the age of critical raw materials.
0:36.5	Without them, we simply wouldn't have TVs, computers, electric cars, wind turbines, medical scanners, drones and many other products and applications.
0:46.3	And their demand is projected to skyrocket in the coming years.
0:49.3	According to the International Energy Agency, the transition to global climate neutrality will require six times more minerals in 2040.
0:58.8	And for the EU to become net zero by 2050, a lot more critical raw materials will be necessary too.
1:05.7	Let's hear the Vice President of the European Commission, Maro Sovkovich.
1:10.0	Europe will need almost 60 times more lithium and 15 times more cobalt by 2050 for electric cars
1:17.8	and energy storage alone.
1:21.1	Demand for rare earth used in permanent magnets critical for products like wind generators
1:26.7	could increase tenfold in the same period.
1:29.6	Yes, the green and digital transitions are very materials intensive.
1:34.4	And recent pledges by EU countries to boost defence capabilities
1:38.1	mean we'll be needing even more critical raw materials, such as tellurium or vanadium.
1:46.7	Yet only a small proportion comes from EU mines. So, where are we going to get them from? The problem for the European Union is
1:54.6	its heavy reliance on imports, often from quasi-monopolistic third country suppliers, and the supply of critical raw materials
2:02.5	is often more concentrated than that of fossil fuels.
2:06.7	Just to give you some figures, currently China provides 98% of the EU supply of rare earth elements.
2:13.5	Turkey, 98% of the boreate.
	...

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