The Mining Association of Canada | The Canadian Mining Story: Economic Impacts and Drivers for the Global Energy Transition 2023 44 SECTION 5 Clean Technologies, Climate Change and Innovation Climate change is a global crisis. To address greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, Canada and 192 other states signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. The agreement aims to limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius in this century and 1.5 degrees over the long term through reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The agreement also includes provisions for reviewing commitments and provides financing to developing countries to address climate change. Minerals and metals will help the world transition to a low-carbon future. Electricity networks to provide clean energy, electric vehicles, wind energy, photovoltaic solar cells, and battery storage all require mined materials. The clean energy system of the future will be very different from the current one, using renewable resources like the sun and wind to create energy. On the other hand, equipment required for clean energy is typically more mineral-intensive than equipment used for fossil fuels: since 2010, the average amount of minerals needed for a new unit of power generation capacity has increased by 50%, primarily due to renewable projects.33 According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), putting emissions on a trajectory consistent with the Paris Agreement in one scenario requires annual installation of solar photovoltaic cells, wind turbines and electricity networks to triple by 2040, and sales of electric vehicles (EVs) to grow 25-fold over the same period. The IEA has studied climate change in detail, as energy is responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas generation. Using economic and scientific models, the IEA makes projections about how the world will make the change to a lower-carbon future. These studies have included an investigation of the role that minerals and metals will play. 33 IEA (2021), The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/ the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions.
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