Making the Global Quest for Raw Materials Sustainable

This webinar hosted by the Financial Times, in partnership with Schroders, is the second in the Business Book of the Year Webinar Series. These live webinars will highlight the freshest ideas and boldest thinkers in the important topic areas covered by the longlisted and shortlisted books.

Given the growing importance of certain critical minerals to modern society, what needs to be done to ensure production is both humane and environmentally sound? Can these supply chains truly become sustainable? Can they ever hope to achieve net zero? And what are the ways in which diplomats, scientists and economists can tackle pressing threats to the environment such as climate change?More than 60 per cent of the world's cobalt is mined in the ‘copper belt’ located in the south east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least 20 percent of this supply is reliant on local children and young adults in conditions that have been likened to ‘modern-day slavery.’ Lithium batteries which contain this cobalt are vital in the decarbonisation of transport, powering electric cars. Despite being key to the world's pursuit of a more sustainable world, this is a finite resource, the extraction of which can do severe damage to the environment.

The critical nature of vital resources on display in the ‘chip war’ currently being waged between the US and China as they look to command the supply chains for the creation of the semiconductors that are so vital to everything from fighter jets to electric cars to smartphones.

This discussion will explore whether the supply chains of the natural resources that underpin so much of modern society can ever become truly sustainable, what environmental and human impacts they currently have and what needs to be done to overcome them. It will set these challenges in the context of parallel concerns about climate change and the environment.

Cross sector collaboration

How important is cross sector collaboration going to be in ensuring that AI’s potential applications are realised across business and society?

Automation

What do organisations need to do to ensure that automation enhances the quality of jobs rather than destroying it? 

Implementing AI tools

What lessons can be learnt by society from the major technological advances of the past as it works to implement AI and other fast--moving new technologies successfully? 

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