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By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

Proponents of critical minerals as the way to have a world running solely on renewables and electric vehicles are not providing the full picture as their assessments of necessary investments and the speed of the energy transition sound unrealistic, according to OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais.

Policymakers and forecasters, as well as advocates of a fast energy transition, need to carefully consider if the needed investments and volumes of critical minerals supply are feasible in their net-zero scenarios, Al Ghais wrote in an article published on OPEC’s website on Monday.  

Mining projects to extract critical minerals have long lead times from discovery to first production.

Coal and natural gas are vital for the processing of raw critical minerals to refine them into battery-grade products ready to be used in clean energy and electric vehicles (EVs).

Oil products and other fossil fuels are also used for the production of solar panels, wind turbines, and EVs.

Last month, Al Ghais said that peak oil demand is not on the horizon, blasting the International Energy Agency’s prediction that global oil demand would peak before 2030.