CRoPlus: The raw materials needed for a clean energy transition exist. The challenge is the time needed to gain them

The transition to clean energy requires sufficient critical resources to enable this transformation. Consumption of these materials is expected to grow significantly in the future. How will the EU's decarbonisation efforts evolve in the future? This topic was discussed by our researcher Michal Hrubý in the Studio Leonardo programme of Český rozhlas Plus. According to Hrubý, the problem is not the lack of resources, but the time it takes to obtain the raw materials. In this context, he draws attention to a new legislative initiative of the European Commission, which aims to better coordinate the time of extraction of critical materials.

"The raw materials are available, but the time it takes to plan exploration, physically reach the raw materials, and the actual mining and processing is around 10-15 years for some elements. We have an overview of the extent to which the raw materials are available, but the investment in mining itself would have to come decades ago to keep up with what is planned," says Michal Hrubý.

"Two weeks ago, a new initiative came from the European Commission. The new law is supposed to outline and direct concrete plans on how to not only extract critical raw materials within the EU, but also how to diversify our suppliers, from whom to buy raw materials, so that we avoid dependency on one country, as is the case now," he adds.

 You can listen to the whole interview (in Czech) here. 

Michal Hrubý
Research Fellow

Expertise: EU green economics, heavy industry, transport