Critical Minerals, Geopolitics, and the Risks for Achieving Net-Zero Transition

Date: 24 Nov 2022 6:30 pm — 8:00 pm
Speaker(s): Sylvie Goulard, Tim Gould, Professor Sophia Kalantzakos, Daniel Litvin, Professor Lord Stern
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE and Online

This event will bring together leading voices in the field for a panel discussion on the risks for the net-zero transition caused by the dependence on critical minerals.

Transitioning to net-zero emissions requires a large-scale economic transition to renewable energy. Scaling up the manufacturing of the technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles will result in significant demand for and dependency on the supply of a range of minerals for the foreseeable future. These ‘transition-critical minerals’, including metals, minerals and Rare Earth Elements, are required to manufacture the green technologies needed for the transition to a low-carbon economy. As a low-carbon future will not be possible without these minerals, supply chain risks and demand uncertainties are central topics that need to be assessed and addressed, with potential implications for economic and financial stability. The type of transition to a net-zero economy significantly determines the materiality of the risks, with a delayed and disorderly transition presenting greater challenges for financial and price stability.

Meet our speakers and chair

Sylvie Goulard (@GoulardSylvie) was appointed second deputy governor of the Banque de France by the Council of Ministers on 17 January 2018 and has carried out most of her career in European institutions.

Tim Gould was appointed the International Energy Agency’s Chief Energy Economist in 2021. Mr Gould is also Head of the Division for Energy Supply and Investment Outlooks, in which capacity he co-leads the World Energy Outlook, the IEA’s flagship publication, and oversees the Agency’s work on investment and finance, including the World Energy Investment report.

Sophia Kalantzakos is Global Distinguished Professor in Environmental Studies and Public Policy at New York University and a long-term affiliate at NYU Abu Dhabi. Her research focuses on resources and power, on new spatial imaginaries that reflect the changing ways that we think of global space and interdependence, and on the new emergent patterns and avenues of possibilist thinking as a way of re-imagining geopolitics for the 21st century.

Daniel Litvin is Founder and Managing Partner of Critical Resource, and author of Empires of Profit: Commerce, Conquest and Corporate Responsibility. He is also a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and an alumnus of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Nicholas Stern (@lordstern1) is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Head of the India Observatory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. President of the British Academy, July 2013 – 2017, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014.

How to attend

This public event is free and open to all. This event will be a hybrid event, with an in-person audience and an online audience.
For the online event: Registration for this event on Zoom will open after 10am on Thursday 3 November.

For the in-person event: No ticket or pre-registration is required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For any queries email events@lse.ac.uk.

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