A Unified Repository for a Sustainable Energy Transition

By Shingirai Vambe

The world’s transition to a low-carbon economy is heavily reliant on the availability of critical materials, such as cobalt, chromium, copper, graphite, lithium, and silver. These materials are essential components in the production of clean energy technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and electric cars. As the demand for these materials continues to grow, ensuring a stable and transparent supply chain has become a pressing concern.

However, the critical materials market is characterized by a complex geography and a complicated market structure, involving extraction, processing, and intermediate and final use of metals. This complexity requires access to quality data, but most mineral supply markets remain highly opaque due to limited information. This lack of transparency is already disrupting mineral supply chains and poses a significant risk to the ongoing energy transition.

In 2023-2024, a joint study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) examined the global data governance landscape for critical materials. The study reviewed 45 data sources produced by 37 organizations, including the International Lithium Association, International Nickel Study Group, OECD, World Bank, and World Trade Organization. The main finding of the study was that global data governance of critical materials markets is highly fragmented, and international data collaboration is limited.

The study revealed that while detailed data are available for some materials, such data are often scattered across multiple sources. Each source is useful in its own way, but they lack comprehensive coverage of all critical materials markets. Moreover, access to recent data often requires expensive subscriptions from commercial providers. The study also found that data limitations are more severe for downstream stages of critical materials value chains, such as processing, stockpiling, use, and recycling.

The lack of reliable and comprehensive data on critical materials markets hinders supply and demand forecasting, reduces the accuracy of research results, and complicates the assessment of material criticality. This situation can lead to supply chain disruptions, price spikes, resource nationalism, trade disputes, and geopolitical tensions, ultimately slowing down the global deployment of renewable energy.

To address these challenges, the study proposes the establishment of a unified, open, and transparent global repository of data on critical materials, called the Materials for the Energy Transition – Repository & Information Collection (METRIC). METRIC would provide a single platform for accessing and managing critical materials data, covering extraction, trade, and criticality assessment.

The proposed repository would be based on good governance criteria, such as transparency, participation, and accountability. It would offer a much-needed global public good that can be accessed and used by governments, civil society, citizens, international organizations, researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors. By improving transparency and information flow about critical materials market expansion and supply, METRIC would facilitate more accurate forecasting, better decision-making, and reduced risks in the critical materials supply chain.

Establishing METRIC would require strong international collaboration between data providers on data unification, standardization, sharing, and use. Drawing on successful data management initiatives in other industries, such as the JODI data platform for global oil markets, METRIC could be coordinated by a multistakeholder coalition.

The international clean energy community must work together to urgently build METRIC, as it would greatly accelerate the deployment of renewable energy technologies globally and reduce geopolitical risks at a time of increasing international tension. By addressing the critical materials data challenge, we can ensure a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient energy transition for all.