This academic paper is completely based on the aspects of the Green Deal of Europe which was proposed by the European Commission in the year 2019. It is very fine in the assessment of the wider context of a climate of EU governance whether it will advance the agenda of climatic change. It proposes interrelated and broad categories for the evaluation of the green deal. The performance of this agenda is dependent on the economic crisis while its successful implementation is based on the financial endowment that includes public funding shift from the way of hydrocarbons to renewable energy resources and efficient energy in most of the post-academic programs. EU institutes legal competence ensures and coordinates for implementation of the green deal. Along with third partners and international programs, focus on the crisis of carbon adjustments. All the factors that will be discussed in this paper will be completely based on the agenda of climatic change and the crisis from which the European Union is going through.

1. Introduction

For tackling climate change, the EU has already pursued some policies. It is completely adapted to the climate change strategy that was proposed in 1992. It was endorsed for the control of global warming by 2 degrees Celsius which is above the pre-industrial levels in the continent. As the years passed, in 2001 the EU had strengthened its values and came like an international leader in terms of climatic change only when it was secured enough for the followers of the crypto protocol. Some ambitious policies domestically backed up the European Union’s role in the world. (Siddi, 2020)

There is no doubt that Eu has taken this step to make the whole of Europe green and free of carbon. The current situation of the country hasproposed a lot of opportunities in this way. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the crisis of climate has already led the countries to think about this positive factor that influences the health and environment.The transition of proposed green technologies like renewable energy, stationary energy storage, and e-mobility isdependent on the critical raw materials that include neodymium, cobalt, tungsten, niobium, tantalum, and some other rare piles of earth.(Claeys, 2019)

There are a lot of challenges in the way of the green deal: currently, the environmental and social impacts of processing and extracting resources from the earth are very high. The trackability of minerals is not an easy task in a green deal because the supply chain is completely impacted by it.The recyclability of restrictions is not for the design of products so that the need fornon-EU countries in this way is getting high and increasing.

Figure 1-Announced and commutative renewable capacity of energy in mining(Jones, 2021)

2. EU Energy governance and Green Deal in the mining industry

Several innovative exploration techniques have been developed by projects of Horizon 2020 to find metal minerals and ores to put Europe on the energy-efficient continent of the world. It would come with a better economy and sustainable energy resources. It highlighted 6 cutting-edge projects of the EU that are very much helping to put in transition. Access to resources is one of the most essential and complicated questions in this way. The main aim of the Green Deal in the European Union is to make Europe a carbon-neutral continent by 2050.(Brodny, 2020)

Moreover, the commission plans for summer 2020 raise the emission of greenhouse gas reduction that is targeted 50% by 2030and 55% by the levels of 1990.Raw materials sustainable utilization that includes industrial minerals, metals, and most essential critical raw materials like rare piles of the earth is one of the core prerequisites for this transition to happen. It is only possible due to the industrial value of the chain and energy usage is one of the important concerns. Defense sectors, mobility, renewable energy production, electric vehicles, mobile phones, and other ways that are taking part in the consumption of energy will be made renewable and carbon neutral by 2050 (CORDIS, 2021).

The transition of energy is defined by the international agency of renewable energy. It is a pathway for the world to enhance the global energy sector by decreasing the usage of carbon to zero percent by the mid of this century. It is very obvious that the role of mining and usage of coal is very essential to overcome theenergy demand but it is causing global energy transitions and global warming in the world. As per the estimation of today, the global energy is taken by 2-11% of the coal that is increasing the impact of emitting CO2 in the atmosphere. In this way, there is an increase in the use of mining metals.

By the past few decades, the transitioning of low-carbon systems of energy has been underway. The annual power capacity of renewable energy is expanding and reached72% of the already installed capacity in 2019. The evolution of this strategy is still driven in most of the countries of the EU as per the regulations of the government. Incentives have been set to meet the decarbonization and mitigate goals of climate set in an agreementheld in Paris. Some other countries in the EU have transitionedthe support schemes in the past for a competitive purchase of auctions in agreements.It was facilitated by the steep falls in the costs of renewable energy, energy, and oil growing engagement and different gas companies in the projects of renewable energy.(Sabato, 2020)

Figure 2- (a) Annual of energy technologies as a percentage of production 2018, (b) Annual demand of energy technologies by 2050(Sbai, 2020)

Wind, thermal, low-carbon mineral, metal, and especially photovoltaic technologies are more suitable for the green deal commitment in the EU. It is to be illustrated that with every capacity of 1 MW, there is a need for 3000 solar panels. In the case of electric transportation and wind power, each turbine almost contains 3.5 tons of metals in the form of stainless steel and, iron, copper, etc. about 83 kg of copper is required in an electric vehicle average. In this way, the overall demand for niche and base minerals are the foundation of this clean energy. It is also expected that there will be an increase in the consumption of these minerals and metals with the adaption of about 5005 by 2050. It is for the case of concentrated storage technologies of energy including graphite, lithium, and cobalt, etc.

The prospects of demands suggest some promising optionsin the resource-rich countries prompting governments of different countries. Bolivia is the home for ¼ resource of lithium. Democratic Republic of Congo and Chile are taking into policyand investment options for the support and development of mining industries that arehighly considered in the global context.(Siddi, 2020)

From mine water contained in the coal mines which are abandonedis another way of mining that will ultimately contribute to the less use of carbon shortly. This is one of the best options that is being studied in recent years by different countries of the EU. The use of water in mines such as geothermal resources usually inherit a lot of environmental benefitsthat use conventional heat in geothermal mines. It also pumps applications by giving several environmental benefits such ashigher quality geothermal energy and efficient exploration.

3. Performance of Green Deal and its assessment

With the increased demand for materials, the research and innovation of the European Union are funded for the aim of Horizon 2020. It helped in improving the access of materials and some minerals from the core of the earth with the optimization of consumption and extraction conditions.Exploration of minerals is usually conducted in search of concentration ores that could be sued for industries and other commercial purposes. It is now very complicated to estimate the availability of resources in the core of the earth due to the severity of mining operations.(Jones, 2021)

Overall expenses of energy are to be estimated for approximately 305 of the cast total operating costs in companies related to mining. There is 32% of the consumed energy is in the form of electricity. It is to benoted that the financial aspect is usually a more considerable motive for most of the companies and decreasing cost of renewable energies from the last decade.(Eurostat, 2021)

Renewable energy fora few years has been underway where the cost of electricity is highly considerable. It was mostly for the case of mining in remote areas where the electricity cost from the grid are more substantialas well as these areas are also lackingenergy disruptions.(Claeys, 2019)

However, due to the change in climatic conditions and the momentum of gaining awareness in the world of industry and sources of renewable energy are getting more competitivethan ever before. Different mining companies in the EU are getting shares and interests in renewable energies for powering their operations in specific countries.

It is only achieved due to the agreements of power purchasing or joint ventures with the companies that are providing power by purchasing certificates of electricity or microgrids of mining companies.Undoubtfully, there is still a long way to make energy 100% renewable in the EU by assessing different projects. Some experts say that hybrid solutions are somehow very much competent in providing 50% of the renewable energy and it also presents some better options in the convention of power that is fossil-fuel based.

Figure 3-Share of energy from renewable sources, 2004 and 2015(Eurostat, 2021)

It is considered that the global greenhouse effect due to mining is about 4-7%from which one percent is only due to the scope of emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere. The risk atlas of environmental, social, and governance produced by S&P clearly shows a negative perceptionusually faced by mining and metal operations in different countries. The average mining sector report index shows a very similar picture. It showed that the industry of mining has only developed piecemeal progress in the way of advancement in sustainable development goals. The change in climatic conditions is also a threat to the mining sector. Metals and mining are also the main reason for this impact and the way to stop this is highly considered by different countries of the EU.(Brodny, 2020)

Mining industries never ignored the responsibility of taking care of the environment. The technology advancement has already led the industries and various power generation companies to automation where there will be less requirement of workers and hazardous operations are usually done through robotics and computer applications. Drilling and improvements in exploration use the equipment for locating and extracting minerals from the core of the earth requires a very precise way and implementation. It is not surprising for the industries that renewable energy resources will come with more sustainable energy options.

4. Mining sector to sustainability

Advancements in renewable energy technologies and the industry commitment are ready for the change and some benefits to renewable energy companies and mining sector; less reliance on carbon-related fuels and there will be vulnerability to the fluctuations of global pricing, reduction in emissions of carbon, and specific scope emissions of 2 for mines that are consuming a huge amount of electricity. Environmental satisfaction and social criteriaare used for the measurement and sustainability of green credentialsof the specific projects. It will be a pre-requisitefor lenders and investors as well as offtakes. Improvedengagement of investors will shift the debt of the capital market towards green and sustainable markets for the compliance of SDG and ESG indicators and it will be crucial.

There will be stability in the prices of power. A strike in the price of power In Eu will be a very considerable factor for different countries and the need to overcome electricity for mining purposes can be assessed properly. Large-scale mining processes can be done in this way and the advancement in technologies like renewable energy resourcescan give benefits to mining companies in this way.(Claeys, 2019)

5. Conclusions

By this study, it has been concluded that the plan and agreement of EU countries on lowering the carbon consumption till 2050 can give an edge to the power section so that the improvements can be made in regards to climate change. More or less, the usage of minerals and metals being used for such mining purposes can be explored by renewable energy. A prominent change in the greenhouse effect in the EU will be promising in this way.

References

Brodny, J. &. (2020). The Use of Artificial Neural Networks to Analyze Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollutant Emissions from the Mining and Quarrying Sector in the European Union. Energies, 13(8), 1925.

Claeys, G. T. (2019). How to make the European Green Deal work. Bruegel Policy Contribution, 13.

CORDIS. (2021, Jan 17). Sustainable innovative solutions for mineral exploration. Retrieved from cordis.europa.EU: https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/413488-metal-and-minerals-exploration

Eurostat. (2021, Jan 18). Archive:Energy from renewable sources. Retrieved from ec.europa.EU: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Energy_from_renewable_sources

Jones, B. (2021, Jan 18). Opportunities and challenges of renewable power for miners. Retrieved from Crugroup.com: https://www.crugroup.com/knowledge-and-insights/spotlights/2019/opportunities-and-challenges-of-renewable-power-for-miners/

Sabato, S. &. (2020). A socially just transition through the European Green Deal? ETUI Research Paper-Working Paper.

Sbai, A. (2020, Sep 22). The Role of the Mining Industry in the Energy Transition. Retrieved from Infomineo.com: https://infomineo.com/mining-industry-in-energy-transition/

Siddi, M. (2020). he European Green Deal: Assessing its current state and future implementation. Researchgate.