Study of the environmental, social, and legal risks related to the supply of strategic minerals for the energy and digital transitions

Summary

Demand for minerals is set to increase in view of their crucial use in the digital and energy transition. At the same time, environmental and social impacts of mineral supply chains are increasingly being documented. The aim of this study is to offer a basic understanding of the risks associated with these supply chains, which are becoming highly strategic for French manufacturers within the digital and energy transition.

This report highlights the following key learnings:

• The legal framework applicable to minerals has strengthened in recent years, on both a European scale, and within European countries;
• Mineral supply chains are complex (multiple processes) and dispersed around the world;
• Environmental and social risks are present at every stage of the supply chain;
• The main extracting and processing countries linked to energy and digital transitions are highly exposed to these risks, and particularly to human rights, socio-economic and political risks;
• A wide range of solutions and players are available to manage these risks. However, their sheer number can make it difficult to identify the right partners, and existing structures struggle to produce positive results.

This initial work establishes an initial overview of the risks associated with the mineral sector. To go further, more detailed studies are needed on priority raw material for each organization, their specific challenges, and the identification of associated solutions.