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International economics of resource productivity... 231 pursuing pollution-oriented policies for extractive industries only while the real challenge is to arrive at comprehensive concepts for resource-using industries. Evidence from research with combinations of Life Cycle Assessment and other tools such as Material Flow Analysis (see below) suggest that in fact variables of the two angles ‘materials’ and ‘environmental pressure’ are highly correlated when product groups, industries or economies are analysed (Bringezu and Bleischwitz 2009: 37f, 141). In a systems perspective one also ought to take into account that the Earth is a closed system for materials and land, whereas the sun constantly provides energy. To counterargue further against prioritising energy and pollution: producing useful forms of energy always requires materials. It thus makes sense to look at resources and their environmental impacts in a comprehensive manner. Environmental constraints arise across the whole life-cycle of using materials. Thus, while sustainable mining should certainly be an element for comprehensive strategies. It is essential to put this into the perspective of analysing the processes downstream across the material value chains of goods, i.e. transforming resources into materials, production, consumption, recycling activities and any final disposal. From the life-cycle perspective, all stages of the life-cycle chain offer opportunities to improve material efficiency, reduce waste generation and close the material loops of the economy. In that sense, concepts such as ‘material flow analysis’ and ‘industrial ecology’ reveal particular strengths. 2.3 Resource constraints to the low carbon economy The interdependency between energy and materials can be highlighted for the case of resource constraints to the low carbon economy. Most renewable energies 2 demand metals for their production, which are – at least partly – critical. Possible constraints comprise the following metals. Infrastructure for renewable energies requires non-renewable mineral resources for equipment and process installations. Telecommunication and other information technologies, which may contribute to reductions in global travel and transport, depend increasingly on microelectronic devices, which require speciality metals. Taking into account the ambitious climate change policies of many countries, a number of minerals may come under increasing constraints. Lithium-ion batteries, currently used in electronic devices are expected to play a growing role in future demand for electric cars. Though forecasts in that area are extremely sensitive to public policy programmes on clean cars, a Credit Suisse estimation of annual growth rates in the order of 10 % (McNulty and Khay 2009) seems conservative but robust. This will likely lead to increased extraction activities at a globally limited number of salt lakes, such as those in Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Photovoltaic cells for solar arrays and LED energy-efficient lighting 3 both rely on gallium, a by-product of aluminium. Gallium for such green-tech 2 Biomass might be an exception; however biomass gasification and other related technologies also demand metals for the production of useful energy. 3 LED stands for light-emitting dioxide.
232 R. Bleischwitz demand is estimated to exceed current total world production by a factor of six by the year 2030 (Angerer et al. 2009). Future market development for gallium might contribute to enhanced bauxite mining where countries such as Guinea, China, Russia and Kazakhstan are among the top ten reserve holders. Tantalum, used for capacitors in microelectronics such as mobile phones, pagers, PCs and automotive electronics, is mined mainly in Australia and Brazil. Due to a breakdown of production in Australia in early 2009, the Democratic Republic of Congo has become a major world supplier of tantalum. Militarisation of mining in this country is well documented (Global Witness 2008) and the country is already subject to UN investigations because of illegal trade revenues financing civil war activities. Precious metals like gold, silver and platinum are increasingly used in microelectronics. Platinum group metals (PGM) also play an important role as chemical catalysts, used for pollution control, such as in exhaust catalysts in cars, or in energy conversion technologies like fuel cells. Fuel cells are a very promising low carbon technology that can also be used in combination with hydrogen as a substitute for oil in the transportation sector. 4 PGM mining and refining is concentrated in only a few regions in the world. Platinum is mined in South Africa, and PGM are produced as a by-product of nickel and copper in Norilsk, Russia, and Ontario, Canada. The former is associated with extreme amounts of mining waste, the latter with considerable emissions of sulphur dioxide. The world’s platinum resources would not suffice to supply one third of the global car fleet in 2050 based on current fuel cell technologies (Saurat and Bringezu 2009). This shortlist is not exhaustive; further critical metals are e.g. copper and chrome, the latter being important for high-tech steel. In addition, phosphorus is a critical substance because it cannot be substituted at today’s knowledge and is essential for all nutritional processes on Earth (Cordell et al. 2009) – which is again a constraint on producing agricultural goods in the future and biomass strategies. As a result of this growing demand and concerns related to scarcity, a material leakage will have to be minimized and strategies of reuse will have to play a larger role. Any such strategies will have to include collection systems for consumer goods that are currently internationally traded and thus open loop systems. 2.4 Misallocation and uneven patterns of use Because environmental constraints have only been incorporated into prices to a very limited extent, this non-internalization of negative externalities leads to distortions and misallocation. Globally, two thirds of the world population use on average between 5 and 6 tons of resources per capita; industrialised countries use twice or more the amount of resources per capita than developing and emerging economies. 4 See e.g. the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/fch/ index_en.cfm and the World Hydrogen Conference at: http://www.whec2010.com
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