When he talks about the green energy transition, University of Delaware professor Saleem Ali is quick to point out that there is no such thing as a free lunch. That is, in order to move away from fossil fuels, we’ll have to mine the minerals needed to fuel clean energy sources and electric cars.
Portugal is a great example of this conundrum. The European Union (EU) aims to be climate-neutral by 2050, and Portugal has vast lithium deposits that could be used as a homegrown stockpile to help achieve that goal. Critical minerals like lithium make green technologies possible, but extraction has the potential to negatively impact…
