The Depletion of Non-Renewable Abiotic Resources - Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources - page 10

computer models 10 and subsequently has not been adequately written into global
policies and protocols.
An example worth highlighting is that of the United Nations Environment Pro-
gramme (UNEP 11 ), which proposes the paradigm of the Green Economy defined
as one that results in “improved human well-being and social equity, while signifi-
cantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities”. In its simplest form,
a Green Economy is low-carbon, resource e cient and socially inclusive. Growth in
income and employment are driven by public and private investments that reduce
carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource e ciency, and prevent
the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services (UNEP, 2011).
Yet the new Green Economy does not only require clean energy technologies
but a network infrastructure comprised of food, water, transport and communica-
tion technologies (OECD, 2011). Such global networks depend on the availability
of strategic materials which are at risk due to uneven global distribution, supply
disruptions, and/or lack of substitutes.
To demonstrate the challenges of bringing the Green Economy into fruition, the
authors have selected a set of examples including 1) three of the critical renew-
able technologies set to power the green economy: bioenergy, solar photovoltaics
and wind; 2) mobile phones and ICTs, the basis of green investment and a green
economy; 3) electric and hybrid vehicles, a solution to green transportation; and 4)
new lighting technologies, which should contribute to increased energy e ciency. In
the following section the fist category is described. In addition, Appendix A shows
an in-depth description of the critical materials used in ICTs, vehicles and e cient
lighting.
1.4.1 Bioenergy
In regard to clean energy technologies, biofuels 12 should constitute a promising
source of primary energy. According to the Technology Roadmap. Bioenergy for
Heat and Power (IEA, 2012) bioenergy will increase from around 10% of the world's
primary energy to 24% by 2050. Thus inevitably increasing the amount of land sac-
rificed to its production. These large plantations, often located in some of the
world's most delicate and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, replaces (and dis-
places) endemic species with intensive monocultures requiring insatiable volumes of
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilisers.
The problem of fertiliser stems from the fact that whilst potassium chloride can
be found in abundance and nitrat es industrially obtained through the Haber-Bosch
10 For instance by those of international organisations and multinational energy companies, such
as the International Energy Agency, World Energy Council, Inter-governmental Panel for Climate
Change, BP, and ExxonMobil.
11 In fact, UNEP, through the International Resource Panel opens the discussion about the issue
of metal scarcity, as will be seen later.
12 Biofuels are obtained from high energy content organic material which could be in the form of
organic waste or even planted specifically as an “energy harvest”.