Surfing for the planet

I was quite startled to read at reference 1 this morning that the sort of battery needed to drive an electric car might involve 8kg of lithium and 14kg of cobalt, both of which, as far as I was concerned were rather obscure metals of strictly limited supply.

Then this afternoon, I came across reference 2, with the rather startling graphic included above.

From there to reference 3, the people at the bottom of the graphic, associated for these purposes with the people at reference 4. Searching reference 3, took me to, amongst other places, reference 5, from which last the next graphic is taken. The first graphic is indeed a collage made up of material from NOAA. And it does not look good. We clearly need to crack on with batteries, to wean ourselves off coal, oil and gas.

And so to reference 6 and 7, this last a couple of years old now, but suggesting that people are worrying about cobalt. The bad news being that we have gone up from 14kg to 20kg. Perhaps this was the shift to the bigger cars used in the US.

Next stop Lithium at reference 8, where things do not look too bad. And parts of South America look set to become rich. Note: I think the story is that reserves is what can be got at now, for a price; resources is what is there.

Last stop Cobalt at reference 9, where things do not look so clever at all, with DRC (aka the Congo) having a good grip on world supplies, a large chunk of which has been contracted to the Chinese - who had to foresight to get in quick. Hence the work described at reference 7. And, as one of the articles put it, the Congolese are set to be the Saudis of the new era.

But there is some hope for us Brits yet as the Australians put in an appearance in both tables. Maybe we ought to put a bit more effort into that special relationship.

References

Reference 1: The planet's economist: her hit book Doughnut Economics laid out a more sustainable future. But can Kate Raworth turn her ideas into meaningful change - Hettie O'Brien, Guardian - 2023.

Reference 2: Climate graphic of the week: the fast-shrinking carbon budget: Scientists say current data shows only six years left to limit global warming to 1.5C - Camilla Hodgson, Steven Bernard, Chris Campbell, Financial Times - 2023.

Reference 3: https://www.noaa.gov/.

Reference 4: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/.

Reference 5: Climate Change: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide - Rebecca Lindsey, Ed Dlugokencky, NOAA - 2023.

Reference 6: https://www.energy.gov/eere/office-energy-efficiency-renewable-energy.

Reference 7: Reducing Reliance on Cobalt for Lithium-ion Batteries - Vehicle Technologies Office, EERE - 2021.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt.