Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Metals for a low-carbon society

Renewable energy requires infrastructures built with metals whose extraction requires more and more energy. More mining is unavoidable, but increased recycling, substitution and careful design of new high-tech devices will help meet the growing demand.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

© B CHRISTOPHER/ALAMY

Figure 2: Increasing global consumption of raw materials.

References

  1. Masson-Delmotte, V., Le Treut, H. & Paillard, D. in L'énergie à découvert (eds Mosseri, R. & Jeandel, C.) 22–25 (CNRS Editions, 2013).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. World energy outlook 2012: Renewable energy outlook (International Energy Agency 2012); http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/publications/weo-2012

  3. Deciding the Future: Energy Policy Scenarios to 2050 (World Energy Council 2007); http://go.nature.com/vYzp4M

  4. Öhrlund, I. Science and Technology Options Assessment: Future Metal Demand from Photovoltaic Cells and Wind Turbines (European Parliament, 2011); http://go.nature.com/VUOs7V

    Google Scholar 

  5. Mineral commodity summaries 2011 (US Geological Survey, 2011); http://go.nature.com/qH7nLj

  6. Mineral commodity statistics (US Geological Survey Data Series 140, 2005); http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/

  7. Deng, Y., Cornelissen, S. & Klaus, S. The Energy Report: 100% Renewable Energy by 2050 (WWF with ECOFYS and OMA, 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  8. International Energy Outlook 2013 (US Energy Information Administration, 2013); http://go.nature.com/Vv1J4x

  9. Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on defining critical raw materials (European Commission, Enterprise and Industry, 2010); http://go.nature.com/yto76i

  10. Brown, T. J. et al. European mineral statistics 2007–11 (British Geological Survey, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  11. http://go.nature.com/ojNdPr

  12. http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/aitik/

  13. Commodity Profile – Copper (British Geological Survey 2007); http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/statistics/mineralProfiles.html

  14. http://www.era-min-eu.org

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olivier Vidal.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (PDF 383 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vidal, O., Goffé, B. & Arndt, N. Metals for a low-carbon society. Nature Geosci 6, 894–896 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1993

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1993

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing