In partnership with the Schmidt Family Foundation, Climateworks, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and University of California, Davis, the Climate and Community Project released a new report that may challenge widely held assumptions about the U.S.’s path to a zero-emissions future.

The report largely focuses on the current and projected demand for EV battery metals, specifically lithium, and the large-scale social and environmental consequences of lithium mining.

The significant amount of media attention that this report has received thus far signals an important increase in interest around forecasts of demand for raw mineral extraction, particularly as it relates to the underlying assumptions that often fast-track permits for new mining. As a foundation, we hold that the energy transition is urgent but that the transition must be rights-based and resource-efficient. Our grant-making supports these priorities together by funding communities, ideas, and movements fueled by innovation and imagination to vision an ethically sustainable future.

The report’s executive summary reads, in part:

…the United States can achieve zero-emissions transportation while limiting the amount of lithium mining necessary by reducing the car dependence of the transportation system, decreasing the size of EV batteries, and maximizing lithium recycling. Reordering the US transportation system through policy and spending shifts to prioritize public and active transit while reducing car dependency can also ensure transit equity, protect ecosystems, respect Indigenous rights, and meet the demands of global justice.

Major investments to shift away from US car dependency would have benefits spanning from the frontlines of mining, which would see reduced social and environmental harms, to densified metropolitan areas throughout the country, which would experience myriad benefits from improved air quality to pedestrian safety. Ultimately, climate, transit, and Indigenous justice can be aligned. Doing so requires an ambitious rethinking of the energy transition that emphasizes benefits for communities and ecosystems most impacted by the climate crisis. In order to achieve a just future, the movement for climate justice must present a united front against profit-driven extraction.

Read the full report and watch a briefing on the findings: