New report highlights raw material risks for Scotland’s economy

Raw Materials Critical to the Scottish Economy, a research project funded by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and carried out by SNIFFER, lays out for the first time what supply risks in raw materials could mean for Scotland, and asks what opportunities may be out there for Scottish businesses. Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland all provided advice and were closely involved in steering the research.

Lorna Walker, Senior Policy Officer in SEPA, said:

“The issue of resource risk is a new and emerging one on the international stage and SEPA felt it was important that we gained a better understanding of the impact this could have on Scotland’s economy and the global environment, and how we can better manage our resources.

“With the global population projected to rise to nine billion by 2050 and some emerging economies growing by up to 10% per annum, it is inevitable that resource constraints will be felt – either through price rises or disruptions to supply. Indeed some of these effects are already being felt, with China imposing export quotas on rare earth elements and the price for phosphate rock rising 700% between 2007-8.”

Andy McDonald, Senior Director of Renewables & Low Carbon Technologies at Scottish Enterprise, said:

“These resources are critical to the functioning of the Scottish economy and many of them are important for the transition to a low carbon economy, such as Rare Earth Elements (magnets for wind turbines), lithium (batteries for electric vehicles) and copper and indium (solar cells). The potential future scarcity of these key materials will drive the economic opportunities within the transition to a more sustainable economy. This future growth will be shared across all of our key sectors as they both develop and adopt new technologies and processes which will increase their competitiveness and decrease their environmental impact.”

The work identified the top 12 materials which are critical to the Scottish economy and are likely to be subject to supply shocks in the short to medium term, as well as the seven sectors of the economy which may be vulnerable.