July's announcements of major green initiatives in the UK

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dropped a green bombshell in July by issuing hundreds of new development licences for North Sea oil and gas companies. He said that the new licences will cut Britain’s carbon footprint, as domestic production is responsible for just a quarter of the emissions of imported liquified natural gas. Alongside the new oil and gas licences, Mr Sunak confirmed millions of pounds will be invested in carbon capture and storage facilities in North East Scotland and the Humber.

Carbon capture and storage
Source: The Times

Labour, however, has promised to block new oil and gas developments if it wins next year's election, saying it would focus instead on investments in renewable sources such as wind and nuclear power, which have supplied about 30% and 15% respectively of the UK's energy over the past year. It's a shame that investment in nuclear wasn't made several years ago as this could have been the ideal source of energy needed for the transition to renewables, such as wind and solar power. In the meantime is the PM's decision a good one, as fossil fuels are going to be needed for a long time yet to supply the energy to mine and process the required metals, and to actually build the renewables, and oil and gas are better options than coal? Gas has supplied 38% of the country's needs over the past year.

July has also witnessed long-awaited and transformative developments for the UK critical minerals industry, such as Tata Group’s $4 billion investment into the construction of a gigafactory here in the UK (see posting of July 21st) and the recent green light given to Green Lithium to build the UK’s first large-scale lithium refinery in Teesside. 

Currently the European EV and energy storage sectors are wholly reliant on lithium produced by Chinese refineries. These existing producers are environmentally unfriendly, emitting large volumes of CO₂. This dependence will be further amplified by a continued increase in demand for battery chemicals. Green Lithium's solution is a UK lithium refinery that can serve the European market in an environmentally-friendly way whilst providing a stable and secure supply of lithium hydroxide to European cathode producers, battery manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers.

And in the same week that the PM made his announcement, there was news that a new research centre at Imperial College London will develop sustainable routes to materials for a green future.  

The Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials at Imperial College will transform current mineral extraction approaches to support the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and will act as the hub for collaboration with other leading global institutions. It will drive a new sustainable model for materials production, supporting the mining and materials processing industry in developing new sustainable techniques and technologies to provide the critical materials the world needs for the energy transition.

The global transition to renewable energy generation, use and storage will require a significant growth in the production and supply of critical materials including metals and rare earth elements. These will be needed to support the scale up of electrification such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen production. The mining industry plays a vital role in increasing the supply of these materials. Global governments have recognised these materials as the key to enabling a rapid, just and sustainable transition to a decarbonised society. However, the extraction of the earth’s resources is itself energy and water intensive and can be ecologically damaging. A sustainable future requires dramatic and rapid change in this industry.

Prof. Jan Cilliers

The Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials will deliver research programs to transform the way vital materials are produced, used and recycled and make them more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. Rio Tinto has committed $150 million over ten years to create the centre, which will be led from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering and the Inaugural Director will be Professor Jan Cilliers, Chair in Mineral Processing. It will bring together diverse, inter-disciplinary teams to deliver innovative, and transformative solutions with environment, society, and governance at their core.

Key partners will be announced in the coming months with a plan to launch collaborative centre programmes in early 2024. MEI is particularly interested in this endeavour and is proud that Prof Cilliers, the new Director, will act as an advisor to MEI's new conference, Critical Minerals '24, which will be held in Cape Town in November next year. Details of this conference, which will have particular emphasis on the recycling of critical minerals, will be announced shortly.

@barrywills