From Euractiv, March 7:
Europe’s high environment standards are not enough to hold down pollution from minerals mining.
Brussels' growing pledges to expand Europe's domestic extraction of critical raw materials will be followed by increased pollution, experts say, which means a need to increase the amount that is recycled and reused.
In May 2024, the European Commission opened a call to fast-track a selected list of projects on extracting, processing and recycling critical raw materials (CRM) like lithium, nickel and cobalt.
While the final list is yet to be revealed, the new Automotive Action Plan announced another push to the domestic CRM supply chain, by stating that "streamlined permitting" should be "expanded beyond identified strategic projects".
Procedures dictated by EU law, such as environment impact assessments, are usually seen as hurdles by project developers.
But in this context "the environmental assessments and authorisations required under EU law" remain "an integral part of the permit-granting procedures" a Commission spokesperson told Euractiv.
But this might not be enough.
"By its very nature, mining is highly disruptive to the environment", even if the EU enforces "some of the world's highest environmental standards", Joseph Dellatte from the Institut Montaigne think thank told Euractiv.
Pollution levels are expected to increase with the announced boost to domestic mineral extraction, a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) finds.
"Increased mining activities has, of course, the potential to result in increased levels of pollution from this sector," EEA chief Leena Ylä-Mononen told Euractiv. Thus "minimising pollution through multiple measures," such as increased circularity, is key,
The EU now recycles less than 1% of the critical raw materials used by industries....
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