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Cobalt rush: raw materials and the transition to net zero

Hosted by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment

In-person public event (Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building)

Speakers

Dr Simon Dikau

Arnaud Zajtman

Chair

Professor Elizabeth Robinson

This event will screen the movie Cobalt Rush – The future of going green, which investigates the human and environmental costs associated with the extraction of minerals for the transition to net zero. Following the screening, a Q&A session with the film's director Arnaud Zajtman and Simon Dikau will take place.

The decarbonisation of the transportation sector is a vital component in achieving the goals set out in the Paris Agreement. Consequently, governments around the world are pushing forward the transition away from combustion engine to electric vehicles. However, the production of electric vehicles necessitates the use of raw materials, such as cobalt. The movie sheds light into the human and environmental consequences of mining cobalt. Further, the mineral deposits on land are highly concentrated in just a few countries, making their global availability dependent on trade relationships and vulnerable to supply disruptions that may result from export restrictions, political instability or natural disasters. Such supply challenges have the potential to delay the transition to net zero, but also hold implications for the financial system and its stability.

Meet our speakers and chair

Simon Dikau joined the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in May 2019. He is working as a Distinguished Policy Fellow on central banking and financial supervision in the context of environmental degradation, risk and the economic transition to a sustainable economy. He also oversees the Monetary and Financial Markets work programme at the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx).

Arnaud Zajtman directs and produces documentaries on complex and international geopolitical issues. Before directing and producing, Arnaud Zajtman was the BBC World Service’s permanent correspondent in the Democratic Republic of Congo for about ten years. His reports have also appeared in Le Monde, Libération and Le Soir. He won the Bayeux War Correspondents Award in 2003 and a nomination to the BBC Awards.

Elizabeth Robinson (@EJZRobinson66), is Director of the Grantham Research Institute at LSE.

More about this event

The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) was established by the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008 to create a world-leading multidisciplinary centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise from across LSE and beyond, including on economics, finance, geography, the environment, science, law, international relations, development and political science.

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