Tracing Metal Footprints Through Global Renewable-Power Value Chains
44 Pages Posted: 13 May 2022 Publication Status: Review Complete
More...Abstract
The globally booming renewable power industry has stimulated an unprecedented appetite for metals as key infrastructure components. Many economies with different endowments and technology levels participate in global renewable power value chains (RPVCs) at different production stages, making it difficult to tell who supplies metals for whose low-carbon power generation. Here, we employed a value chain decomposition model to trace the metal footprints (MFs) and value-added of major global economies’ renewable power sectors. We found the MFs of global renewable power sector increased by 1/3 during 2005-2015. Developed economies occupy the high-end segments of the RPVCs, while transfer metal-intensive but low value-added production activities to less developed economies. The quantity of embodied metal transferred doubled between developed and developing economies and the gap of metal use per unit of export-induced value added grew by 13 times. The fast growing demands for renewable power in developed economies are the major contributors to the embodied metal transfer increment within RPVCs, which partly offset by declining metal intensity. Therefore, joint efforts such as establishing metal-efficient and greener supply chain for upstream suppliers and downstream renewable power installers are in urgent need to ensure a just transition in power sector across the globe.
Keywords: metal footprints, value chains, renewable-power sector, metal efficiency, trade imbalance
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