Exploring-the-sociological-impacts-of-going-green-in-developing-countriesThe warned that human activity is changing the physical climate system and could lead to temperatures rising beyond 1.5 掳C above preindustrial levels and environmental calamities. During the COP27, the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres noted that the world was 鈥�.鈥�
Transitioning to renewable energy sources, particularly hydro, wind, and solar is perceived as a remedy to mitigating climate change and contributing to sustainable development. Attention is focused on renewable energy technologies particularly electric vehicles (EV), solar panels, and windmills. Manufacturing these products requires critical minerals and metals (cobalt, copper, lithium, graphite, and nickel and rare earth elements, whose extraction destroys the environment and biodiversity, displaces and exposes host , and to healthy and economic vulnerabilities, a paradox popularly known as the 鈥�.鈥� Little attention is paid to such communities, the environment on which their livelihoods depend, and the fact that since minerals and metals are not renewable, access to raw materials is not sustainable. Moreover, although climatic catastrophes know no national borders, in the global north we are made to believe that renewable energy will insulate us from the devastations created in the global south.
The demand for minerals and metals is irreversible.
The demand for raw materials is liable to increase concomitantly with the demand for energy technologies envisaged to mitigate climate change and reinforce energy security. The International Energy Agency (IEA) 2021 report on the role of critical minerals in clean energy transition stated: 鈥淭he rapid growth of clean energy technologies is expected to boost demand for critical .鈥�
For example, wants 60 percent of all new vehicles to be electric by 2030, and 100 percent by 2035. The United Kingdom (UK) selling petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. The US projects that more than half of passenger vehicles will be electric by 2030. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) projects that from the 4 percent trend of 2020 to 70 percent in while by 2050 wind and solar will contribute approximately 50 percent of and the demand for lithium-ion batteries to rise from 269 gigawatt-hours of 2021 to 2.6 terawatt-hours annually by 2030 and 4.5TWh by 2035 .
Switching the UK鈥檚 鈥�31.5 million petrol and diesel vehicles鈥� to electric batteries alone requires an 鈥渆stimated 207,900 tonnes of cobalt, 264,600 tonnes of lithium carbonate, 7,200 tones of neodymium and dysprosium, and 2,362,500 tonnes of copper (Jonathan 2019). Replacing an estimated 1.4 billion engine vehicles globally requires 40 times the quantities of .
Producing an EV battery 鈥渨eighing 1,000 pounds requires extracting and processing approximately 500,000 pounds of minerals, whose access requires digging and extracting 鈥�.鈥�
The technologies expected to mitigate climate change consume more materials than traditional energy sources. Technological advancements are concentrated in the global north countries, which are the highest , while the majority of the raw materials are sourced from the global south nations which are the least CO2 producer. Communities rich with the minerals and metals required for the green energy transition are being destroyed along with the environment on which their livelihoods depend.