"Achieving LiFT on Mineral for the Energy Transition", August 2019

Addressing the global climate emergency through a transition to a low-carbon energy system requires minerals...Three macro challenges emerge...

1. Getting Enough - ensuring sufficient materials for the global energy shift... Renewable energy technologies are materially intensive and require a different set of metals from existing carbon-based technologies... Innovation in climate smart mining investments could help avoid costly delays... 
2. Doing It Right - responsible production and sourcing... Production of energy shift minerals can and should be clean and smart... This means designing and retrofitting projects for minimal or positive impacts with respect to carbon emissions, water systems and biodiversity. On the social side, expectations across the board are that mining projects integrate human rights and indigenous rights into their core due diligence and risk management practices...
3. Who Gets the Risks and Benefits of Energy Shift Minerals?... A necessary condition for [community inclusion and consent] is transparency, inclusion and engagement on the risks and benefits of projects for host communities and governments... community consent will depend on the kind, scale, and enduring nature of the benefits allocated to the communities who live where the resource is extracted...

The RESOLVE initiative LiFT (Sustainable Lithium for a Responsible Energy Transition) to develop a Responsible Suppliers Framework has been launched to assure that lithium production is in line with today's social and environmental concerns and needs as well as the unique environmental and social characteristics of the [Lithium Triangle] region. The Framework will be built on a foundation of rigorous assessment of sustainability at site, coherence of requirements along the supply chain, and multi-stakeholder dialogue. LiFT is designed to align with and fit into existing upstream initiatives... and downstream responsible sourcing initiatives...