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Renewable energy companies seek to control their mineral and metal supply chains

To meet global climate change targets, demand for minerals and metals like cobalt, copper, and nickel used in green technologies like rechargeable batteries is expected to rise exponentially. But as companies cash in on the mineral boom, scepticism abounds about the sustainability credentials behind big mining projects.

Nowhere are the responsible sourcing challenges more apparent than in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And few metals are fraught with more sourcing problems than cobalt. For GSEM Professor Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, the industry isn’t fully aligned nor is it fully invested in improving the situation in this country. Some companies are setting up tracing projects for specific commodities, but most companies are not able to map all their commodity supply chains to the source. “Expectations for transparent supply chains will only grow in the future. The commodity trading industry understands these expectations but is not yet fully prepared to meet them,” says Prof. Baumann-Pauly.

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