’Lithium will not decarbonise our world’

Are rechargeable batteries that are high in energy density a promising tool to tackle climate change? They can make our transport cleaner, for example. Anthropologist Cristobál Bonelli warns that a technical fix will not decarbonise our world. With his team, he studies how lithium makes it from the mines in Chile to battery plants in China and finally to battery recycling labs in Norway. 'Lithium ion batteries might make one part of the world "greener", but disrupt other parts. And how should we deal with the residual waste of the tons and tons of lithium ion batteries we will need?' Human beings and their activities are responsible for global warming, that we know. The question of how to tackle climate change has now become an urgent matter. Different strategies are being developed to decarbonise the world.