ALL countries are committed to pursuing pathways to decarbonize emissions by 2050, amid concerns raised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the serious consequences of global climate change. The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, set the goals to hold 'the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 C above pre-industrial levels' and pursue efforts 'to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.'

Pursuing net-zero emissions requires political commitment to drive policies in all energy-related sectors to transform business-as-usual energy infrastructure to clean and sustainable energy infrastructure, with clean fuels and renewables playing key roles. The scaling up of all clean and renewable technologies and production requires a massive amount of rare earth minerals or rare earth elements (REE) as critical input into the production of all clean technologies and renewables, such as wind turbines, battery storage and batteries in electric vehicles, electrolyzers, and all smart technologies involved in smart grids and telecommunications. REE are also used in the production of military weapons.