Editor’s note: Critical minerals will be featured in sessions at the 2026 E-Scrap: The Longevity Conference Oct. 26-28 in New Orleans.
A new study by European researchers has given advocacy groups across the continent evidence to push for more battery- and mineral-related action.
The study, “Decarbonising Road Transport Beyond Mining-Intensive Pathways,” was conducted by Öko-Institut and commissioned by several member agencies of the EU Raw Materials Coalition, an advocacy group seeking raw material reform.
Researchers looked at how to meet European critical mineral demand amid growing electric vehicle (EV) use there; EV sales accounted for 23.2% of new car sales there through September 2026, up from 17.7% the year prior. That, combined with data center expansion and other growth areas, has increased global demand for minerals.
Most of the minerals needed for these items come from Asia and Africa, so maintaining an on-shore source would remove any potential supply chain issues and increase mineral independence, researchers said. They focused on five measures that could jointly get European countries closer to that point.
- Recycling more lithium-ion batteries within the EU. Recovering more minerals from batteries could reduce the demand for virgin lithium by 25%-50%, cobalt by 60%-70% and nickel by 35%-50%, researchers estimate.
- Reducing the size of EVs and their batteries would cut the demand for primary and secondary materials, while also reducing overall power needs. Smaller cars and lighter batteries would reduce mineral needs by about 17% by 2035, researchers said.
- Improving energy efficiency would reduce mineral needs for batteries by 14% in 2035 and about double that in 2050. This would require manufacturers to shift their focus from driving range and levels of comfort to energy efficiency, researchers noted.
- Increasing the usage of public transportation, bicycling and walking would reduce reliance on private vehicles. A 29% reduction in new passenger car sales by 2050 would reduce material demand by 29%-36%.
- Reducing and discouraging travel is tied to the previous measure and would have a similar impact. That would require more widespread buy-in, researchers said. Employers more willing to adopt work-from-home measures and city planners incorporating more compact, mixed-use areas would have to be part of such an initiative.
Researchers said legislation across the board could help. One such measure, an EU classification of waste batteries and black mass as hazardous waste, should aid the effort when it takes effect next month. That regulation will ban shipping such items to countries outside the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), restricting exports to non-OECD countries.
But regulators could do more to guide the effort. Recommendations from the researchers include enacting specific recycling targets; boosting funding for recycling and processing facilities; capping future new car length and taxing larger vehicles based on size and energy consumption; establishing a minimum energy-efficiency threshold for new batteries; and create minimum spending requirements for local and regional public transportation systems.
More than three dozen advocacy groups have officially filed letters of support for the research’s findings and called for European leaders to put measures in place to make them a reality.
“Europe should not treat mining as the only way to secure the materials needed for the clean transition,” said Simon Granbery, senior deep sea mining policy officer at Seas of Risk, one of the groups that commissioned the study. “Research shows that Europe can replace new mining through options that are already available and scalable today … Europe can choose this path now, before business-as-usual locks in a future of ever more extraction from vulnerable ecosystems and increasing disposal in landfills.”
“The study clearly demonstrates that there is already massive potential for raw materials savings today, which must be supported by political measures,” said Michael Reckordt, head of raw materials programme at PowerShift, another of the study’s commissioners. “Lighter batteries and cars, together with alternative transport services, offer immense opportunities to reduce dependencies.”
Researchers said the measures, taken together, show that meeting mineral needs without increasing mining is a credible and readily available option. The key, they said, is to pursue the issue decisively to ensure Europe remains competitive globally.
“Demand can be significantly influenced by policy choices,” they wrote.
