Support for EU’s quest for resilience in supply of raw materials

The communication presents a new, expanded list of critical raw materials (CRM) – adding inter alia Lithium and Titanium to the list – and the challenges for a secure and sustainable supply of CRM and actions to increase EU resilience. The full document can be found here.

One statistic stands out, says WEEE Forum: For electric vehicle batteries and energy storage, the EU would need up to 18 times more lithium and 5 times more cobalt in 2030, and almost 60 times more lithium and 15 times more cobalt in 2050, compared to the current supply to the whole EU economy. Clearly a case for increased recovery of certain metals.

The communication lays down a number of actions to develop resilient value chains for industrial ecosystems, and reduce dependency on primary critical raw materials (extraction and mining) through circular use of resources, sustainable products and innovation.

The WEEE Forum fully endorses the EU’s quest for resilience in supply of raw materials. We have been a member of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials and we will also be joining the newly set up European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA). ERMA will seek to increase EU resilience in the rare earths and magnets value chain, and will identify barriers, opportunities and investment cases.