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An International Energy Agency Newsletter
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Welcome back to Energy Snapshot, the International Energy Agency’s new monthly newsletter focused on charts and data. In today’s edition, we take a look at the growing importance of critical minerals as the global energy system evolves.
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As the rollout of clean energy accelerates and countries around the world look to expand clean energy manufacturing, ensuring reliable and affordable access to materials such as lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt and graphite is rising up the policy agenda.
In 2023 and 2024, pressure eased on the market for metals and minerals that go into electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy technologies, as a surge in supply outpaced the rise in demand. Prices, which reached record highs in the aftermath of the pandemic, dropped significantly.
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However, IEA analysis shows that today’s well-supplied market may not be a good guide for the future, as demand for critical minerals continues to rise. Notably, the recent declines in critical mineral prices have made it harder to attract new investment in production, which rose at a slower rate in 2023 than in 2022.
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A faster ramp-up of clean energy deployment would require boosting the supply of critical minerals from mining. But the recycling and reuse of minerals form a secondary source of supply that could also make substantial contributions to total supply in the longer term. On a pathway in which countries meet their announced energy and climate goals, recycling reduces the need for mining copper and cobalt by around 40% in 2050, and by about a quarter for lithium and nickel.
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For more on recycling critical minerals, check out our new report out today. The 2024 edition of our Global Critical Minerals Outlook, published in May, also remains essential reading on this topic. Our interactive Critical Minerals Data Explorer is another way to explore the latest projections online.
Thank you for reading. Any thoughts or feedback? Send them our way at energysnapshot@iea.org.
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We’ll be back in your inboxes with more charts based on IEA data and analysis in December.
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