As the recognized representative of the European mineral raw materials industry covering more than 42 different metals and minerals and employing 350.000 directly and about four times as many indirectly, Euromines welcomes a European Green Deal to put Europe on the right track to a sustainable future. We also believe that an updated Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change should focus both on prioritizing policy areas and actions where EU interventions can be most effective as well as on assessing how to increase ambitions in a manner that best contributes to sustainable growth and enhances economic competitiveness.

There is agreement in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) community that current resource assessment methodologies have limitations when it comes to informing materials selection. Currently, the European Union’s Product/Organisational Environmental Footprint method (PEF/OEF) contains an interim solution, while calling for further method development to provide a long-term solution. As a result, the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has been working with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and other leading Life Cycle Impact Assessment experts to develop a new method for assessing resource use in LCA.

Euromines is publishing its Position on the New Industrial Strategy for Europe. One key element of implementing Europe’s Green Deal successfully must be increasing the resilience of value chains and bringing back value chains to Europe.

Our critical dependence on electronics means we are equally dependent on the mineral raw materials needed to make them. Technology requires a large variety of minerals and metals, many of which are rare or difficult to acquire. The essential nature of securing the mineral raw materials that support the electronics value chain combined with the challenges of sourcing some of these materials makes it critical that we make this value chain a priority moving forward.