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Sun, X., Giljum, S., Maus, V. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7385-4723, Schomberg, A., Zhang, S., & You, F.
(2025).
Robust Assessments of Lithium Mining Impacts Embodied in Global Supply Chain Require Spatially Explicit Analyses.
Environmental Science & Technology 10.1021/acs.est.4c12749.
Abstract
Lithium is a critical material for the energy transition, but its mining causes significant environmental impacts that will intensify due to surging global demand. Here, we conduct a mining site-specific environmental impact assessment of lithium on a global scale, focusing on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water use, and land use. We then track the production and international trade flows of all lithium-containing commodities to assess how lithium mining impacts are distributed across global supply chains. Results indicate that environmental impact intensities of battery-grade Li2CO3 production from various mine sites differ between 4 times for GHG emissions to 2885 times for land use. 56-68% of environmental impacts generated in the mining countries were embodied in internationally traded lithium flows. On the production side, China, Australia, and Chile were the top 3 countries, accounting for 91-94% of environmental impacts. Regarding final demand, China was the major consuming region, inducing 46-47% of the environmental impacts of global lithium mining, followed by Korea (17-18%) and the EU-27 (9%). Our findings reveal the need for spatially explicit information to accurately assess the environmental impacts of lithium mining and highlight that mitigation requires cooperation between major producer and consumer countries.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | environmental impacts; life cycle assessment; lithium resource; supply chain |
| Research Programs: | Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) > Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability (NODES) |
| Depositing User: | Luke Kirwan |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Mar 2025 14:27 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Mar 2025 14:27 |
| URI: | https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/20449 |
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