Those that say low-carbon energy will use too many materials should take a look at how much we currently mine for fossil fuels. The world extracts around 15 billion tonnes of coal, oil and gas every year. The International Energy Agency projects that the world will need around 28 to 40 million tonnes of minerals for low-carbon technologies in 2040, at the height of the energy transition.28 That’s 100 to 1,000 times lower than fossil fuels. Of course, rocks are not made of pure minerals; the minerals are often in much lower concentrations, so the total amount of rock we’ll have to move will be
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