Nicholas Institute experts are working to ensure that rapid growth in demand for critical minerals—like lithium and rare earths—strengthens energy transitions and economic development in emerging economies.
Achieving global net-zero emissions by 2050 to meet climate targets will require a significant increase in critical mineral mining and processing. Critical minerals like rare earths, cobalt, nickel, and lithium are essential ingredients for solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, electric vehicles, battery storage, and other clean energy technologies central to decarbonization.
Most critical mineral reserves are in developing and emerging economies. The acceleration of demand presents a historic opportunity and defining challenge: how to ensure that mineral wealth translates into long-term economic development, resilient energy systems, and shared prosperity.
Experts at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability are helping policymakers, state-owned enterprises, and private sector leaders in emerging economies move beyond extraction to build processing, refining, and manufacturing industries. This work, undertaken in collaboration with Duke University’s Critical Minerals Hub and The Council for Critical Minerals Development in the Global South, supports countries in creating jobs, boosting GDP, strengthening domestic supply chains, and anchoring sustainable industrialization strategies.
