Tracing metal footprints via global renewable power value chains

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 3703 - 14
• Main Authors: Fu, Rao, Peng, Kun, Wang, Peng, Zhong, Honglin, Chen, Bin, Zhang, Pengfei, Zhang, Yiyi, Chen, Dongyang, Liu, Xi, Feng, Kuishuang, Li, Jiashuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 22.06.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 704/172/4081; 704/844/4081; Carbon Dioxide - analysis; China; Demand; Economic Development; Electric industries; Footprints; Global economy; Green buildings; Humanities and Social Sciences; Industry; Metals; multidisciplinary; Paperboard; Renewable Energy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Supply chain sustainability; Supply chains; China
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39356-x

The globally booming renewable power industry has stimulated an unprecedented interest in metals as key infrastructure components. Many economies with different endowments and levels of technology participate in various production stages and cultivate value in global renewable power industry production networks, known as global renewable power value chains (RPVCs), complicating the identification of metal supply for the subsequent low-carbon power generation and demand. Here, we use a multi-regional input-output model (MRIO) combined with a value chain decomposition model to trace the metal footprints (MFs) and value-added of major global economies’ renewable power sectors. We find that the MFs of the global renewable power demand increased by 97% during 2005—2015. Developed economies occupy the high-end segments of RPVCs while allocating metal-intensive (but low value-added) production activities to developing economies. The fast-growing demand for renewable power in developed economies or developing economies with upper middle income, particularly China, is a major contributor to the embodied metal transfer increment within RPVCs, which is partly offset by the declining metal intensities in developing economies. Therefore, it is urgent to establish a metal-efficient and green supply chain for upstream suppliers as well as downstream renewable power installers for just transition in the power sector across the globe. In this study, the authors report that, developed economies allocate metal-intensive-low value-added production activities to developing economies in global renewable power value chains. It necessitates building metal-efficient and green supply chains for just transition of power sector.