Metal Sourcing For a Sustainable Future
Drastic measures are required to meet the standards of the Paris Agreement and limit the increase of global average temperatures well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. Mining activities are typically considered as unsustainable but, at the same time, metals such as cobalt and lithium are...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Earth Science, Systems and Society |
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| Online Access: | https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2022.10049 |
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| author | Ortwin Renn Richard Gloaguen Christina Benighaus Leila Ajjabou Ludger Benighaus Virginia Del Rio Javier Gómez Sari Kauppi Michaela Keßelring Moritz Kirsch Marko Komac Juha Kotilainen Elena Kozlovskaya Jari Lyytimaki Cathryn McCallum Tuija Mononen Jouni Nevalainen Lasse Peltonen Jukka-Pekka Ranta Stephane Ruiz Jon Russill Frank Wagner |
| author_facet | Ortwin Renn Richard Gloaguen Christina Benighaus Leila Ajjabou Ludger Benighaus Virginia Del Rio Javier Gómez Sari Kauppi Michaela Keßelring Moritz Kirsch Marko Komac Juha Kotilainen Elena Kozlovskaya Jari Lyytimaki Cathryn McCallum Tuija Mononen Jouni Nevalainen Lasse Peltonen Jukka-Pekka Ranta Stephane Ruiz Jon Russill Frank Wagner |
| author_sort | Ortwin Renn |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Drastic measures are required to meet the standards of the Paris Agreement and limit the increase of global average temperatures well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. Mining activities are typically considered as unsustainable but, at the same time, metals such as cobalt and lithium are essential to sustain the energy transition. Several sustainability goals defined by the United Nations (UN) require large quantities of raw materials. Exploration and extractives activities are required in order to contribute to meeting sustainability standards. Future sourcing of metals will need to implement procedures that go well beyond current ecological, economic, and social requirements and practices. In this paper we assess the usual sustainability criteria and how they apply to the extractives sector. Sustainability can only be achieved if one accepts that the natural capital can be substituted by other forms of capital (so called weak concept of sustainability). Sourcing the raw materials increasingly demanded by our societies will need transparent and inclusive stakeholder participation as well as a holistic understanding of the impact of extractives activities to reach this weak sustainability status. Our analysis shows that the sustainability of mining cannot be reached without harmonized political instruments and investment policies that take the three pillars of environmental, economic, and social sustainability as a major priority. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2123e3c2f80f441196432e307bf7445a |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-730X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Earth Science, Systems and Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-2123e3c2f80f441196432e307bf7445a2025-01-10T14:04:53ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Earth Science, Systems and Society2634-730X2022-12-012110.3389/esss.2022.10049Metal Sourcing For a Sustainable FutureOrtwin Renn0Richard Gloaguen1Christina Benighaus2Leila Ajjabou3Ludger Benighaus4Virginia Del Rio5Javier Gómez6Sari Kauppi7Michaela Keßelring8Moritz Kirsch9Marko Komac10Juha Kotilainen11Elena Kozlovskaya12Jari Lyytimaki13Cathryn McCallum14Tuija Mononen15Jouni Nevalainen16Lasse Peltonen17Jukka-Pekka Ranta18Stephane Ruiz19Jon Russill20Frank Wagner211IASS Potsdam IASS Potsdam, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V., Potsdam, Germany2Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, Germany3DIALOGIK gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Kooperationsforschung mbH, Stuttgart, Germany2Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, Germany3DIALOGIK gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Kooperationsforschung mbH, Stuttgart, Germany4Asistencias Técnicas Clave, sl, Seville, Spain4Asistencias Técnicas Clave, sl, Seville, Spain5Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland6Institute of Human Factors and Technology Management IAT, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany2Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Freiberg, Germany7European Federation of Geologists, Brussels, Belgium8University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland9Faculty of Technology, Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland5Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland10Sazani Associates, Carmarthen, United Kingdom8University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland9Faculty of Technology, Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland8University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland9Faculty of Technology, Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland11Agency of Innovation and Development of Andalusia, Málaga, Spain13SRK Exploration Services, Cardiff, United Kingdom14Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, Fraunhofer Institute, Stuttgart, GermanyDrastic measures are required to meet the standards of the Paris Agreement and limit the increase of global average temperatures well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. Mining activities are typically considered as unsustainable but, at the same time, metals such as cobalt and lithium are essential to sustain the energy transition. Several sustainability goals defined by the United Nations (UN) require large quantities of raw materials. Exploration and extractives activities are required in order to contribute to meeting sustainability standards. Future sourcing of metals will need to implement procedures that go well beyond current ecological, economic, and social requirements and practices. In this paper we assess the usual sustainability criteria and how they apply to the extractives sector. Sustainability can only be achieved if one accepts that the natural capital can be substituted by other forms of capital (so called weak concept of sustainability). Sourcing the raw materials increasingly demanded by our societies will need transparent and inclusive stakeholder participation as well as a holistic understanding of the impact of extractives activities to reach this weak sustainability status. Our analysis shows that the sustainability of mining cannot be reached without harmonized political instruments and investment policies that take the three pillars of environmental, economic, and social sustainability as a major priority.https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2022.10049sustainable mining operationenvironmental impact analysissocio-economic consequences of miningmining regulationsustainability governance |
| spellingShingle | Ortwin Renn Richard Gloaguen Christina Benighaus Leila Ajjabou Ludger Benighaus Virginia Del Rio Javier Gómez Sari Kauppi Michaela Keßelring Moritz Kirsch Marko Komac Juha Kotilainen Elena Kozlovskaya Jari Lyytimaki Cathryn McCallum Tuija Mononen Jouni Nevalainen Lasse Peltonen Jukka-Pekka Ranta Stephane Ruiz Jon Russill Frank Wagner Metal Sourcing For a Sustainable Future Earth Science, Systems and Society sustainable mining operation environmental impact analysis socio-economic consequences of mining mining regulation sustainability governance |
| title | Metal Sourcing For a Sustainable Future |
| title_full | Metal Sourcing For a Sustainable Future |
| title_fullStr | Metal Sourcing For a Sustainable Future |
| title_full_unstemmed | Metal Sourcing For a Sustainable Future |
| title_short | Metal Sourcing For a Sustainable Future |
| title_sort | metal sourcing for a sustainable future |
| topic | sustainable mining operation environmental impact analysis socio-economic consequences of mining mining regulation sustainability governance |
| url | https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2022.10049 |
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