Decarbonisation requires over $1 trillion investment towards key energy transition metals, incorporates Aluminium: Wood Mackenzie

The growing demands of decarbonisation over the next 15 years requires to meet by an investment of over $1 trillion, which will be entailed in vital energy transition metals - aluminium with other metals like copper, nickel and lithium stands in there.

The UK headquartered Global Energy Research and Consultancy, Wood Mackenzie, in a new report, said the figure is double what was invested over the last 15 years.

Wood Mackenzie pointed: “While the coronavirus pandemic has slowed climate change mitigation efforts this year, governments across the world are using stimulus packages to either kick-start or accelerate their decarbonisation journeys.”

Julian Kettle, Wood Mackenzie’s Vice Chairman of Metals and Mining, said: “One can argue about both the pace and scale of the energy transition but the criticality of metals to its realisation is without question.”

“Put simply, the energy transition starts and ends with metals. If you want to generate, transmit or store low/no-carbon energy you need aluminium, cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium.”

Kettle added: “The fundamentals for several metals are deteriorating, with prices for most well below long-term incentive levels as investors are not convinced that the road to recovery is assured.”

It has been found that most of the producers are becoming increasingly carbon-conscious, with many setting targets for net-zero carbon and some high-profile majors have offloaded their high carbon assets and/or acquired low carbon replacements.

Kettle said: “It isn’t just about portfolio balance, and the green agenda will have a profound impact on the way companies extract and refine metals, with lower carbon operations an increasing priority.”

“Green energy procurement and generation are at the fore and portfolio optimisation is now a must-have on any board agenda. It feels like the tipping point is imminent,” adds Kettle.

“We expect carbon to become a non-negotiable component of any AGM – as safety did in the 1990s.”