Conference Agenda

The energy transition is necessary to achieve climate goals and to reduce harmful emissions for humans and nature. It also promises a gradual elimination of the long-standing dependence on countries that produce fossil fuels. However, the rapid market growth of renewable energy technologies, electric vehicles and large batteries also poses new challenges for the management of resources and waste, as well as a new dependency on critical raw materials (CRMs), such as lithium, cobalt and rare earth metals, which are predominantly mined and processed outside of the EU. Material security concerns add to environmental concerns about the emissions and other environmental pressures from mining for CRMs.

It is therefore important that the materials necessary for the energy transition are used as efficiently as possible. However, in practice there is much untapped potential in the reuse of solar panels and large batteries, while CRMs in end-of-life products are routinely not recovered. With the current pace of demand for renewable energy technologies, electric vehicles and large batteries, hanging on such low efficiency rates will likely have major environmental and material security consequences. This underscores the urgency of coming up with a policy mix fostering the sustainable use of CRMs and other materials, through e.g. prolonging product lifetimes, stimulating high-value recycling and CRM recovery, and promoting the use of secondary materials in new products.

This Science-Policy-Business session will aim to answer the following questions, drawing on findings from past and ongoing research and from policy practice in various countries:

1. What policies are already in place to promote material resource efficiency in technologies crucial for the energy transition, such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and large batteries? To what extent do these policies focus on critical raw materials?

2. Have existing policies been effective and efficient in promoting material resource efficiency and safeguarding critical raw materials?

3. What policy mix is eventually needed to steer the energy transition towards a more efficient use of CRMs and other materials, for example through extending product lifetimes, increasing high-value recycling, and cutting back on primary materials in the manufacturing of new renewable energy installations, electric vehicles and batteries?

The session will also identify important knowledge gaps in the literature, and thus present opportunities for environmental and resource economists to do original and socially relevant research on policies promoting a circular energy transition.