Renewable Energy Use and Implications to Mining and Biodiversity

To keep the global temperature increase below 2°C and mitigate the growing impacts of climate change, a rapid transition to renewable energy is necessary.

Mining and renewable energy seem like a strange mix because the former is often viewed as a dirty industry due to its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and potential to harm the environment. However, boosting the uptake of renewable energy also means increasing the mining of metals for renewable energy production. The latter promises a pathway to reduce GHG emissions and get us out of the climate crisis.

A study published in Nature Communications in 2020 suggests that the rapid transition to renewable energy will also increase threats to biodiversity, due to the rise in mining activities.

The study mapped out mining areas worldwide and examined their proximity to conservation sites. It finds that almost 50 million square kilometres of the Earth’s land area are potential mining sites, excluding Antarctica.

Eighty-two per cent of the total area is used for renewable energy mining, with parts overlapping with protected areas and remaining wilderness. Eight per cent of the area overlaps with protected areas, 7% with crucial biodiversity, and 16% with remaining wilderness. These overlapping areas also contain a higher density of mines, indicating more significant threats to biodiversity.

According to the study, renewable energy production is also more material-intensive than fossil fuel production, and future production is expected to intensify the demand for metals. Recycling existing materials will not be enough to meet the needs. 

Threats to biodiversity will be more severe in countries that possess these metals but lack robust resource governance, such as in Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni salt pan, which holds the world’s second-largest lithium reserve but remains untouched by mining.

To reduce biodiversity loss from mining activities and ensure that renewable energy production does not simply replace the climate change threats avoided from fossil fuel use will require a conservation plan that identifies and develop strategies to manage major biodiversity threats.

The study highlights an urgent need to understand the extent of mining’s impact on climate change and biodiversity.

“None of these potential tradeoffs is seriously considered in international climate policies, nor are new mining threats addressed in global discussions around post-2020 United Nation’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity. Necessary actions include strengthening policies to avoid negative consequences of mining in places fundamentally important for conservation outcomes and developing necessary landscape plans that explicitly address current and future mining threats. These actions must also be supported by a significant research effort to overcome current knowledge deficits.”

Sonter, L.J., Dade, M.C., Watson, J.E.M. et al.

To read the entire study, click the link below: