Worth Its Weight in Lithium? The Dynamics of Sustainability, Rare Earth Minerals and NATO

The sustainability transition driven in large part by global climate change has created demand for a new generation of green technologies highly dependent on rare earth minerals. These rare earth and critical minerals are also needed for consumer and medical products as well as for military uses. This has created unintended risks, as China has assumed the world’s dominant position by controlling access to and pro-cessing of these minerals, leaving countries around the world to develop policies and approaches to minimize national security risks. This paper reviews the sustainability drivers of REEs as well as the role that the U.S. administration is taking which has triggered geopolitical tensions with historic NATO allies including the threat of ac-quiring Greenland for access to REEs and critical minerals. We explore the great power competition over REEs and chart the location and value of NATO as an alliance in these terms. This includes developing up to date data on the spatial variability of key minerals for the sustainability transition possessed by NATO and other U.S. friendly nations.