For the past decades, our economies relied on the fast growing export and import of materials for the lowest price as well as future growth of supply to meet projected growth in demand. It is a model that relied on predictability and stability of supply chains which have been heavily disrupted during the corona pandemic, Russia's invasion and intensifying climate impacts. The energy transition needs to be rapidly accelerated but the transition to a net-zero economy is very material intensive. While Europe is trying to detangle itself from its dependency on Russia, demand for critical raw materials is only about to skyrocket in the next decades.

The H2020 project LOCOMOTION (Low-carbon society: an enhanced modeling tool for the transition to sustainability) develops scientific models to assess (amongst others) impacts on raw materials for different raw material future scenarios, including one that is based on the European Green Deal. This event seeks to discuss the complexity of the multiple crises and gain insights from LOCOMOTION’s state of the art integrated assessment model (IAM) that supports policy and decision making. The results will be discussed with a representative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) on Raw Materials, a sustainable business leader and representative of the European Environmental Bureau. The discussions will enrich the debate with stories and questions of both promising realities as well as high impact ways to improve the raw material supply chain, the strategic autonomy of the European Union, and the goals of the European Green Deal in an increasingly unpredictable world.

Speakers

Prof. Harald Sverdrup (Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, part of LOCOMOTION H2020 project)

Diego Marin (Policy Officer for Raw Materials and Resource Extraction, European Environmental Bureau)

Patrick Nadoll (Senior Advisor, Exploration and Resource Assessment, EIT RawMaterials)

Angela Jorns (Fairphone representative)

Moderator

Meadhbh Bolger (Resource justice campaigner, Friends of the Earth Europe)

For more information please contact Nick Meynen, nick.meynen@eeb.org

Location

Le Plaza Hotel - room Paola

The raw realities of the green transition