ENERGY TRANSITION: IEA warns that metals price volatility may slow net-zero progress or add to costs

Higher or more volatile prices for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earth elements could slow global progress toward a clean-energy future or make it more costly, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

In its World Energy Outlook report released on Wednesday October 13, the IEA said that price rallies for key minerals in 2021 could increase the costs of solar modules, wind turbines, batteries for electric vehicles (EV) and power lines by 5-15% this year alone.
If maintained over the period to 2030 - in a scenario targeting a transition to a net-zero carbon emissions economy by 2050 - price increases would add $700 billion to the investment required for these technologies, the IEA noted.
"The outlook for prices for many energy transition minerals depends on the pace of economic growth and on supply responses to that growth. It also depends to a large extent on how the world's decarbonization pathway evolves," the IEA said.

The net-zero carbon emissions scenario charts a roadmap to the stabilization of rising global temperatures - preferably limiting the rise in the mean...

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