Tracing the geographical, social and environmental footprint of military decarbonisation

The world’s largest militaries are finally acknowledging a threat to all peoples and nations, which has no regard for borders or territories, economic or political interests: the climate crisis.

Several global militaries and the wider defence sector have recently pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

However, a shift on this scale will lead to increased demand for critical minerals used in low-carbon technologies, adding to geopolitical tensions over supply.

At the moment, we do not understand the socio-environmental impacts of these pathways or the geopolitical and economic trade-offs they may involve.

Context

Analysis is urgently needed to establish the best ways to develop the supply chains needed to support military energy transitions and critical mineral reliance more broadly.

Without it, there is significant risk that in the rush for new sources of critical minerals, militaries will simply substitute one set of sustainability challenges for another, brushing aside social and environmental considerations.

While studies of civilian critical minerals exist, systematic research of geopolitical and security concerns surrounding military, and their unique and extensive supply chains, are entirely lacking.

Justification
of research

The first aim of this study is to specifically address this evidence gap, generating new geopolitical, security, and socio-environmental insights relevant to civilian and military contexts.

Our second aim is to create an open-source interactive data visualisation tool, or datalab, which displays carbon emissions, and socio-environmental costs of critical mineral supply chains. The datalab is an accessible and user-friendly tool, enabling beneficiaries, from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to communities living close to critical mineral production sites, to pinpoint sustainability and geopolitical hotspots.

Aims & Concepts

How we will
conduct our
study

Our innovative supply chain approach will combine quantitative economic data of resource flows with qualitative responses of actors involved in, and affected by, critical mineral extraction and/or production.

We examine three critical mineral pathways: (1) offshoring through enhanced international markets; (2) increase onshoring capacity of domestic supply; and (3) a circular economy approach using recycled minerals (RE).

We will work directly with the MoD, mineral companies, civil society groups, policymakers and local communities, to follow the critical minerals from their source to their finished military products, tracing their social and environmental impacts along the way.

We will use these findings to pinpoint ‘hotspots’ of carbon emissions and social and environmental impacts, such as water pollution, deforestation and population displacement.