Komentar k nedavnemu IEA reportu o vzacnych kovech potrebnych pro dekarbonizaci"
It doesn’t have to be this way, and here are three reasons why:
The IEA itself highlights that “recycling relieves the pressure on primary supply,” and that recycled copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt from spent batteries could reduce combined primary supply requirements by approximately 10% by 2040;
Research that Earthworks recently published, prepared by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, shows much more optimistic results of 25-55% potential demand reduction through increased recycling of nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper from EV batteries alone;
Recycling has the potential to be a major source of jobs, as EV and other batteries capable of being recycled increase in production. This job can and must be done with the strictest labor and safety laws.
Other strategies, such as public and collective transportation solutions, have significant potential to reduce demand for metals used in electric vehicle batteries. It’s not enough to move from one type of “take-make-waste” extraction-based linear economy; to comprehensively address the climate crisis the world writ large (but especially wealthy and/or Western countries) must commit to fundamentally reshaping our approach to consumption. Specifically, this means moving towards what the UK-based NGO War on Want calls a circular economy, not just for minerals but for all resources and goods, and eventually a circular society, “in which not only waste is minimised, but consumption itself is questioned.” We must no longer assume the planet can handle infinite growth and production.
https://www.earthworks.org/blog/whats-missing-from-the-new-iea-report-on-mining-and-the-renewable-energy-transition/