Copper, nickel, aluminium and steel are found in wind turbines, power grids and electric cars. Germany and the EU are therefore looking for new supplying countries and mining projects. But one question is neglected in raw materials policy: How many raw materials do we actually need, and for what? Germany consumes around two tonnes of metallic raw materials per capita, and only four metals – iron, aluminium, copper and nickel – account for around 94 per cent of this. Much of it goes into cars and buildings, not just the energy transition. The consequences are often borne by people in mining countries such as Indonesia, Peru, the Philippines and South Africa. In this episode of the Global Economy Compass, we show how smaller cars, better-used housing and more durable products could reduce metal consumption by tens of millions of tonnes by 2050, why recycling alone is not enough and why we need transformation by design instead of transformation by disaster.
Show notes
- PowerShift Publication: Reducing raw material consumption: Why less is more
- PowerShift: Raw Materials Reduction Series
- Cover photo: Elbuenminero / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Transcript of the podcast can be downloaded here.
