Green Transition Challenged by the Metal Supply Chain

The current energy transition faces many challenges across the various stages of the metal supply chain (from mineral extraction to product end-of-life). On 12 March 2020, several EU H2020 projects and other partners team up to organise a seminar in which a high-level expert panel will discuss these challenges from different perspectives (coming from the private sector, NGO, academia, research institutions and international organisations). After a brief keynote, challenges in exploitation, processing and recycling will be analysed in the light of the EU Green Deal. Participants will further enrich the reflection during an interactive debate, and filter out several recommendations towards the European Commission. 

The European Commission aims to become ‘the first climate-neutral continent by 2050’. An ambitious “European Green Deal” should ‘enable European citizens and businesses to benefit from a sustainable green transition’, which should be ‘just and socially fair’ for all. This EU decision is undoubtedly good news in the current context of the climate crisis and creates many opportunities for the European society and industry. However, the proposed transition towards ‘green technologies’ (e.g. renewable energy) relies heavily on ‘critical raw materials’ such as lithium, cobalt, tungsten, rare earth elements, etc.

Many challenges lie ahead to materialise this Green Deal: the current social and environmental impact of extraction and processing of resources is high; supply chains of minerals and metals are not transparent and lack traceability; recycling efficiencies are often low; the dependency on non-EU countries is high and increasing; etc.

An inter- and transdisciplinary panel of experts intends to highlight several key issues across the metal supply chain. Based on this analysis, they will put forward several policy recommendations and engage with the audience to further the discussion at EU level.

During a poster session, various EU projects will present their proposals to tackle the challenges of the metal supply chain.

The event takes place on March 12, 2020, in the Flemish Parliament in Brussels. Targeted participants are professionals from different sectors working on these and related topics.

This event is free of charge, but prior registration is mandatory to be able to enter the Flemish Parliament!