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A just energy transition requires just-shoring critical materials

Nature Energy volume 11, pages 3–4 (2026)Cite this article

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Achieving global energy transition goals will require vast quantities of critical raw materials (CRMs) — including copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and rare earth elements — whose production is concentrated in a few countries. China dominates the mining of rare earth elements and refining of several other CRMs, generating dependencies and vulnerabilities across global supply chains. In response, the United States and European Union have launched strategies to secure supply chains through on-shoring (developing new domestic operations), re-shoring (reestablishing previously off-shored industries) and friend-shoring (relocating or expanding supply chains to geopolitically aligned countries).

Reshuffling the geographies of production, however, will not inherently advance a ‘just’ transition or prevent new inequities. Such strategies risk reproducing exploitation and harm by potentially displacing communities and degrading health, water, air, soil and biodiversity through land and energy use, and waste production. Globally, such burdens are projected to fall heavily on populations that have contributed least to climate change1, with over half of proposed facilities located on or near agrarian or Indigenous lands — 73% in Latin America and 77% in Africa2. Moreover, resource nationalism could increase costs and constrain the uptake of low-carbon technologies, thereby delaying climate change mitigation and exacerbating its effects on the most vulnerable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Society, and Sustainability, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Jessica DiCarlo

  2. Department of Management, Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Raphael Deberdt

  3. Department of Mining Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

    Nicole M. Smith & Aaron Malone

  4. Environmental Solutions Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Scott D. Odell

  5. Department of Geography and Environment, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA

    Scott D. Odell

  6. Department of Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

    Lydia L. Jennings

Authors
  1. Jessica DiCarlo
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  2. Raphael Deberdt
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  3. Nicole M. Smith
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  4. Scott D. Odell
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  5. Aaron Malone
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  6. Lydia L. Jennings
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Correspondence to Jessica DiCarlo.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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DiCarlo, J., Deberdt, R., Smith, N.M. et al. A just energy transition requires just-shoring critical materials. Nat Energy 11, 3–4 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01940-4

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