About the Project
The world’s growing appetite for natural resources, in particular minerals needed for the energy and digital transitions, is driving a global extraction surge. These activities are increasingly putting ecosystems and vulnerable communities at risk.
The global political economy of resources has long fostered unequal patterns of production and consumption, in which low-income, resource-rich countries export raw materials to wealthier nations who consume up to 6 times more resources per capita and hold vast material stocks yet continue to demand more.
Much of the rising demand for these transition minerals stems from an urgent and necessary goal: phasing out fossil fuels and shifting to renewable energy. According to the IEA (2026), demand for key energy transition minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements, has grown at close to 10% per year on average in recent years. Across key energy transition minerals, the energy sector drove, on average, around 75% of demand growth in 2025, with portable electronics, aerospace and defence as other significant drivers.
But how much energy and through which infrastructure, and correspondingly what volume of minerals and extraction are required, isn’t fixed. Research shows that high levels of human wellbeing are achievable with far less energy and material demand than wealthy countries currently use, presenting opportunities for low-income countries to leapfrog and avoid energy- and material- intensive futures.
This research project offers a new way of thinking about resource extraction and consumption. Drawing on a Decent Living Standards framework, it examines the material foundations of our wellbeing, combining this with science-based analysis of current resource patterns and impacts and provides forward-looking pathways to show how higher wellbeing can be achieved with lower mineral demand. The goal is to equip decision-makers, organisations, and advocacy groups with the evidence they need to pursue sufficiency strategies, ensuring good lives for all within the planet’s limits.
