Will the climate transition be a battle of materials?

Currently, global demand for cobalt and lithium for electric car batteries will increase almost 20-fold by 2050. Until then, developing a fossil-free energy source will require a lot of copper, aluminum and iron. the corresponding demand is likely to roughly double.

Elements of rare earths will also be needed much more - necessary for wind turbines, for example. A new study now sheds light on the predictable increases in material consumption associated with climate change and describes how they can be mitigated.

The study was led by the Berlin-based Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) and was published in Nature Climate Change . (Ulrich von Lampe, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH, more at phys.org)