(Mongabay) The rapid development of renewable energy technologies — including wind, solar and hydropower, and the commercial success of hybrid and fully electric vehicles — are helping put the world on track to achieve a net-zero carbon economy and meet Paris climate agreement targets.
Yet these positive advances rely on a small number of “technology-critical elements,” or TCEs, rare materials whose mining, production and disposal are linked to myriad environmental problems, ranging from large-scale energy and water consumption, to serious soil, water and air pollution.
These 30 to 35 TCEs are essential to computers, consumer electronics, solar cells, wind turbines, electric cars, plus military and medical applications.
They include the platinum family of precious metals, rare-earth elements such as neodymium and scandium, and other metals such as cobalt, lithium and tungsten. What this diverse grouping has in common isn’t some shared chemistry, but rather its technological necessity and geopolitical scarcity.
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