Delivering the solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and other clean technologies the world needs to meet its climate goals requires a massive expansion of the supply chains responsible for producing them.  

From mining and processing critical minerals, to assembling, transporting and installing these technologies across the world, the transition away from a fossil fuel-powered society requires a huge shift, which could help support the creation of thriving economies and millions of jobs.  

At the same time, the transition away from coal, oil and gas requires a multitude of new resources, the extraction and processing of which can cause social and environmental harms if improperly managed.  

Delivering a fast and fair energy transition means avoiding the pitfalls of the extractive fossil-fuel economy and building new industries which can benefit workers and communities everywhere. 

What we are looking for 

Our “Clean Energy Frontier” series aims to produce hard-hitting accountability journalism on these issues. 

In our first series, we reported on lithium mining booms in Zimbabwe and Argentina; explored India’s dream of building its own solar supply chain; uncovered accusations of rights abuses linked to an Indonesian nickel park; delved into efforts to recycle rare earths in Canada; and examined Swedish company Northvolt’s sodium-ion battery plans.  

In our second series, we are looking for longform stories (1,500-1,700 words) that explore how the energy transition can help support sustainable development, address inequalities and create jobs.  

We are interested in stories that illustrate the opportunities and challenges of the transition and how it can be funded (especially in developing countries), spotlight geopolitical and trade tensions and efforts to address them, expose harms, and examine how technologies are transferred from wealthy to poorer countries. 

Each story should blend on-the-ground reporting with investigative or explanatory journalism.   

We particularly welcome strong character-driven stories and the use of data or satellite images to unveil new trends. The ideal story will have an original angle that captures the attention of our international audience.  

We plan to publish six deeply reported articles between November 2024 and June 2025. We are seeking stories from around the world and we encourage journalists from developing countries to send us their ideas. 

Stories should be accompanied by visual elements, including high-quality photos and video, and we encourage partnerships between journalists and photographers.  

How to pitch 

Join us for an hour webinar at 12pm GMT on August 20 2024 to find out what we expect from your pitches. Sign up here.  

We welcome pitches from journalists with at least three years’ experience. You must have fluent spoken and written English. Journalists from all countries are welcome to apply. It helps if you have worked with international media before and have awareness of climate change issues. 

Your pitch should include: 

• The top line of the story and essential context in no more than 250 words. If we like the idea, we will ask for more detail 

• The sources you would interview 

• Any travel requirements 

• A short summary of your journalism experience, including links to three recent stories you are proud of 

• A link to the portfolio of the photographer you are planning to work with.  

We can offer a competitive reporting fee, as well as an additional budget to commission photographers and cover travel and accommodation expenses. Travel costs will be negotiated in advance and reimbursed subject to valid receipts. 

Please send your pitches with the word ‘Pitch’ in the subject line to project editor Chloé Farand by emailing chloe.farand [at] outlook.com.  

The post Call for pitches: Climate Home News seeks story ideas on clean energy supply chains appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Swedish company’s labs form the largest campus for battery research in Europe. It’s here, in a former industrial zone on the outskirts of the town of Västerås, about 100 kilometres northwest of the capital Stockholm, that one of the continent’s best-funded climate tech companies could write the future of batteries.

In November 2023, Northvolt – Europe’s only major home-grown EV battery maker – announced a breakthrough in battery development.

The company had manufactured a first-of-its-kind energy storage battery by replacing widely used critical minerals – such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite – with cheaper and far more abundant sodium – a chemical element which is found in table salt – as well as iron, nitrogen and carbon.

“This is a fundamentally new technology,” Andreas Haas, head of Northvolt’s sodium-ion programme, told Climate Home News in an interview.

Read the story here.

The post Beyond lithium: how a Swedish battery company wants to power Europe’s green transition with salt appeared first on Climate Home News.

Despite its isolation, a nearby sulfur mine gave purpose to the town in the northwest province of Salta. For decades, mine employees and their families made this inhospitable place their home.

Today, La Casualidad is a ghost town. The mine’s closure in 1979 sealed the settlement’s fate. Rubble and empty streets now stand among snowy mountain peaks and the silence of the salt flats.

But a new surge in mining activity has gripped the area, this time focused on the white-hot rush for lithium. The lightweight metal is critical for manufacturing rechargeable batteries for energy storage and electric cars – technologies at the cornerstone of building clean economies.

Left virtually untouched for millions of years, the salt flats of the sparsely populated Puna plateaus are being transformed into a bustling lithium production centre, bringing both new economic opportunities and concerns of environmental degradation.

Salta’s mining secretary Romina Sassarini points to the potential benefits for local people. “We believe that mining can bring true development to these historically marginalised communities, which lack water, sewage systems and electricity,” she told Climate Home News in an interview.

Read the story here.

The post Lithium tug of war: the US-China rivalry for Argentina’s white gold appeared first on Climate Home News.

All await the same fate: being crunched into a powder so their critical minerals can be extracted.

As countries scramble to secure supplies of the raw materials they need to manufacture wind turbines, batteries and other technologies key to preventing runaway climate change, this facility run by local startup Cyclic Materials is part of an emerging industry: creating a circular economy for critical energy transition minerals.

“Recycling means you get [back] the high-value stuff,” said Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO of the company, which has received funding from electric vehicle heavyweights like BMW.

Read the story here.

The post The Canadian city betting on recycling rare earths for the energy transition appeared first on Climate Home News.

Nickel is a key component of dominant battery technologies for electric vehicles. It helps to give EVs more miles out of a single charge. 

Indonesia, the world’s largest nickel producer, is actively building out an EV battery industry. It is betting on the rapidly growing sector to help power economic development.

The future of the nickel industry is a key issue in next week’s presidential election. Its expansion has recently drawn scrutiny over its environmental and social impacts. 

In Southeast Sulawesi, the construction of a nickel industrial complex on the Indigenous Mopute people’s traditional land has sparked conflict. 

Communities compelled to leave this tract of forest, where their ancestors are buried, are alleging rights violations and police intimidation. The authorities have kept silent. 

Read the story here

Analysts are warning that the boom in nickel projects is eroding officials’ capacity to robustly examine safeguards. But the choice is not either/or. 

Electric vehicles are a necessary part of the energy transition. But as rights NGOs highlight, the sector has a responsibility not to perpetuate the harmful practices of the extractive industries of the fossil fuel era.

You can read the full story on a specially designed mini-site here. Learn more about our Clean Energy Frontier, our series exploring the supply chains of clean energy technologies, here.

To never miss a story, sign-up to Climate Home’s weekly newsletter and get the news straight to your inbox.

The post Indonesia turns traditional Indigenous land into nickel industrial zone appeared first on Climate Home News.

The world’s most populous nation already manufactures some solar PV. But the process is largely that of an assembly line, where imported components are fitted together into modules.

Further up the supply chain, solar components are made from a high-grade silicon known as polysilicon. Today, polysilicon production – like every other stage of solar manufacturing – is dominated by China. 

But buoyed by energy security concerns and US-China trade tensions, a handful of Indian solar manufacturers are benefiting from government support to produce polysilicon components in India. 

Among them is Adani Solar – the greener side of the Indian multinational conglomerate which was built on a bedrock of coal.

In this second story in our Clean Energy Frontier series, Monika Mondal reports from the city of Mundra, Gujarat, where Adani intends to build a polysilicon-to-module manufacturing hub. 

Read the story here

Think-tank Ieefa foresees that India could become the world’s second-largest solar PV manufacturer by 2026 – producing enough solar panels to be self-sufficient and export the surplus. 

But India’s dependence on China for solar components and technology runs deep and its attempt to rival its neighbour’s colossal solar production capacity will require a lot more government support. 

You can read the full story on a specially designed mini-site here. Learn more about our Clean Energy Frontier, our series exploring the supply chains of clean energy technologies, here.

To never miss a story, sign-up to Climate Home’s weekly newsletter and get the news straight to your inbox.

The post India wants its own solar industry but has to break reliance with China first appeared first on Climate Home News.

In this dry part of the country, where repeated droughts have brought misery for small-holder farmers, the lithium mining industry is promising local people a better life. And Mushove is hopeful.

Zimbabwe has Africa’s largest reserves of lithium – a lightweight metal, which can store lots of energy and is used to manufacture batteries for electric cars.

Chinese companies have invested millions to access Zimbabwe’s lithium. And the Southern African nation sees this rush for the critical mineral as an opportunity for economic improvements.

Read the full story here

But in the past, Zimbabwe has failed to turn its vast diamond and gold wealth into revenue for development. This time, the country wants to add value to its lithium reserves by processing them into battery-grade metals that can find a place in the EV supply chain.

In the first of a series of stories exploring the supply chains behind clean energy technologies, Andrew Mambondiyani reports from eastern Zimbabwe on the country’s ambitions for its rapidly growing lithium industry.

You can read the full story on a specially designed mini-site here and learn more about our Clean Energy Frontier series here. Watch out for more stories from India and Indonesia soon.

The post Zimbabwe looks to China to secure a place in the EV battery supply chain appeared first on Climate Home News.