Research – analysis: prof. Giannis Maniatis
With the assistance of PhD students: I. Voulgari, A. Manoli, M. Hatzigeorgiadis

Inequality in carbon emissions too… Globally, the richest 10% emit 4 times more carbon dioxide than the middle class 40%, and 7-10 times more than the remaining poorest 50%. In North America, the top 10% produce 70 tons per capita, more than twice as much as in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (30 tons per capita), and twice as much as in Asia and Russia. Similar distributions apply to middle and low incomes.

Where does electricity come from?

China consumes as much electricity as the US and EU-27 combined. In China and India, coal dominates (61% and 74% respectively), while renewables are now a growing technology (41% and 32% in the European Union and China, respectively). In the United States of America, natural gas is the main source of electricity generation (35%). The nuclear industry has a significant share in the EU-27 (22%) and the US (18%).

Congo leads in cobalt production

A shockingly large amount of the cobalt used in lithium batteries for smartphones and other electronic devices comes from the Congo. A country where 40,000 children under the age of 6 are engaged in mining! The largest reserves of rare earth elements are in China (44 million tons), Vietnam (22 million tons), Brazil and Russia (21 million tons each). China produces 61%, followed by the US with 15.5%. In Europe, 98% of the rare earth elements used are imported from China.

CO2 emissions from renewable energy sources

Even renewable energy sources, when extracting raw materials, as well as during their production, emit carbon dioxide in their supply chain. In onshore wind farms and photovoltaic installations, 70-80% of emissions are generated during the extraction of raw materials, and the rest – during its processing. Similar percentages also apply to heat pumps. By contrast, in EV batteries, both mining and material processing account for about 50% each.

Dominants in metal mining

Congo (cobalt 75%), Australia (lithium 50%) and Chile (copper 30%) dominate the world’s production of critical minerals, while China dominates their processing, as well as the production of batteries, photovoltaics, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolytes . China accounts for 50% of the world’s aluminum and steel production.

The number of new photovoltaic cells is growing

A positive path to a green transition… In 2007, the global addition of new electricity units by technology was +46% for coal, +10% for wind and just +2% for photovoltaics. 14 years later, in 2021, it was only +4% for new coal plants, +50% for new photovoltaic and +25% for new wind farms.