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Land-Use Competition between Biodiversity and Net Zero Goals
…on an assessment by the International Energy Agency (IEA), tripling the capacity of renewables globally requires allocating up to an additional 600 000 km² of land – an area the size of France – to utility-scale solar PV and onshore wind power by 2030, and 2 million km² by 2050. In parallel, the IEA estimates that demand for key energy transition minerals – cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, nickel and rare earth elements (REEs) – is projected to increase at least fivefold by 2030, requiring more land for mining and processing these minerals. At the same time, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aims to protect 30% of…
