Brian Menell is the chairman and CEO of TechMet, a private industrial company that is building controlling or significant minority positions in projects across the technology metal supply chain.
As delegations convene in Glasgow for the UN COP26, there is no avoiding the fact that for climate activists, there is widespread dissatisfaction. The anger is not unreasonable. It is generally understood that major economies are failing in their pledges under the 2015 Paris Accords to halve emissions.
China’s President Xi Xingping is probably not attending, while Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has already bowed out. He has also declined to sign onto the Global Methane Pledge. President Biden is in Scotland, but the U.S. Congress still hasn’t passed two major spending bills with numerous climate provisions.
However, the rancor among activists could be self-defeating if it prevents us from attaining a future energy grid based on renewable sources, clean electrification storage systems, and the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
Many of the activists whose youthful energy is embraced by the COP26 organizers are often the same ones leading efforts to block the mining of critical minerals necessary for the supply chain of these green energy technologies, leaving the US and other major Western nations dependent on foreign sources.
For the rest of this article: https://fortune.com/2021/11/03/green-energy-minerals-cop26-climate-change-brian-menell-techmet/