News

Global stakeholders gathered in Antwerp this month for the World Resources Forum, themed around ‘closing loops’. To achieve a more circular economy, industry and the EU need to work even closer to address the challenges, and having the right data underpins these efforts.

Global stakeholders gathered in Antwerp last week for the World Resources Forum. A joint European Copper Institute and International Copper Association session looked at Copper and the Circular Economy: Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions. From this deep-dive, we pulled out five key take-aways.

Bernard Respaut, our CEO, reflects on COP24 and considers its implications for the future of the copper industry.

There can be no wind or solar energy, no smart grids and no electric vehicles without copper, aluminium or steel, to name but a few materials. What Europe must do is enable advanced processing of materials in order to close the loop, writes Dr Katia Lacasse.

On 7 November, Eurometaux organised a workshop to discuss how to stimulate substitution in the metals sector from a circular economy perspective. The latter is key, since closing the loop through safe reuse or recycling will improve the performance of substances exponentially, significantly lowering the risk of a given material.

On 16 October, the Copper REACH Consortium joined 14 other consortia—representing around 300 substances, including most metals—to formalise our cooperation with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) on the Metals and Inorganics Sectorial Approach (MISA).

This week, Bernard Respaut, Chief Executive of the European Copper Institute, will address the European Mineral Resources Conference on the contribution copper makes to building a strong and sustainable Europe.

The theme of this year’s EU mobility week is multimodality: mixing different, sustainable transport modes for our journeys. Electric modes of transportation—be they vehicles, trams or trains—are all powered by copper, and the shift towards renewable energy will require more copper than is currently used.  We consider the past, present and future role of the red metal to illustrate why there is plenty of copper to achieve the clean energy revolution.

Copper is at the heart of many global trends, such as increasing the use of energy-efficient equipment, renewable energy generation and electromobility.

European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) is an annual highlight for everyone working on sustainable energy policy issues, both in Brussels and across member states. This year’s theme is ‘Lead the Clean Energy Transition.’