The UK risks being “held to ransom” over cobalt and other minerals needed for electric cars because a small number of unstable countries control the supply, scientists have said. The group, which includes geologists from Exeter, Southampton and Leicester universities as well as the Natural History Museum and British Geological Survey, calculated that meeting the country’s 2035 target for electric vehicles would require the import of almost as much cobalt as is consumed by the whole of European industry. They fear that plans for a rapid transition to zero-emission cars to help to prevent dangerous climate change could be blocked by a supply shortage. They accuse the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the government-appointed body which recommended last month that all new cars are electric by 2035, of failing to tackle the problem of where to find the metals to build them.
Times 6th June 2019 read more »