Sustainability of materials required for decarbonisation

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Various materials including Cobalt, Lithium, Nickel, Copper, and Rare Earth Elements are required for low carbon technologies including electric vehicles, batteries, wind turbines, and solar PV panels. An explainer for Carbon Brief by Jocelyn Timperley "These six metals are key to a low-carbon future" discusses some of these metals, where they come from, the quantities available, and whether they could be bottlenecks in decarbonisation efforts.

Uranium is required for current forms of nuclear energy; supply of this material is discussed in the article sustainability of nuclear fuels.

Lithium

A 17 Sept 2020 article by Steven Morris in The Guardian "Lithium find in Cornwall spurs hopes of regeneration" reports that Cornish Lithium announced that it has found Lithium of a “globally significant” grade in underground hot brine springs just north of Redruth.