Below is an excerpt from ISS-Corporate’s recently released article “Rare Earth Minerals: The Hidden Backbone of the Energy Transition”. The full article is available on ISS-Corporate’s resources page.
The global shift to clean energy and sustainable transportation is inseparable from access to rare earth minerals and other critical raw materials. Technologies – such as wind turbines, electric vehicles (EVs), and solar panels – rely on these elements to achieve high performance, lightweight design, and maximum efficiency. Without them, large-scale production of permanent magnets, advanced batteries, and efficient photovoltaic cells would be impossible.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) underscores this dependency: an average EV requires six times more minerals than a conventional car, while onshore wind turbines demand up to nine times more mineral resources than gas-fired power plants. This mineral intensity makes supply security a strategic priority for the energy transition.
By:
Adams Wong, Vice President, Head of Sustainable Finance Research, ISS-Corporate
