Mining's Green Paradox: New Data Shifts Climate Focus to Steel & Aluminum

By Janet Adams

LONDON, UK – March 10, 2026 – A landmark report released today by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) is challenging long-held assumptions about the environmental cost of the green energy transition. The new global dataset suggests that the act of mining for critical minerals like lithium and copper is not a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but it casts a harsh spotlight on the towering carbon footprint of steel and aluminum production, industries foundational to that very same transition.

According to the comprehensive analysis, which compiled data from 1,700 facilities worldwide, non-coal mining accounted for just 0.54% of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2024. This figure stands in stark contrast to the 2.46% of emissions attributed to fugitive methane from coal mining—a sector the report notes must be phased out to meet climate goals.

While this appears to give a partial green light to the accelerated extraction of minerals needed for electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure, the report simultaneously identifies a much larger climate challenge within the broader industry. When combined, the mining and metals processing sectors rank as the world's sixth-largest emitter, with the vast majority of that impact coming not from the mine, but from the furnace.

A Surprising Footprint for Green Tech's Foundation

The central, and most startling, finding of the ICMM report is the relatively small direct carbon footprint of extracting the building blocks for a low-carbon economy. As the world races to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, demand for these materials is skyrocketing.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that the energy sector's need for minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel could increase six-fold by 2040. Lithium demand alone has already tripled since 2017. This surge has fueled concerns that the environmental cost of extraction could undermine the climate benefits of the technologies they enable.

ICMM's data aims to reframe this debate. By isolating the emissions from non-coal mining, the report argues that the primary environmental burden is not where many have assumed.

"Despite our sector's importance to the energy transition, up-to-date, publicly available and industry-wide data has been lacking, contributing to the circulation of misleading estimates," stated Dr. Emma Gagen, ICMM's Director of Data and Research, in the press release accompanying the data. The report, she explained, is intended to "underpin more informed dialogue about the sector's contribution to global GHG emissions."

This finding provides critical context for policymakers and investors. It suggests that, from a pure GHG perspective, ramping up the supply of energy transition minerals is not, in itself, a primary climate threat. However, the story is far from over once the ore leaves the ground.

Beyond the Mine: Steel and Aluminum's Towering Carbon Shadow

The report's most sobering statistic is that steel and aluminum production, combined with coal mining, are responsible for an overwhelming 93% of the mining and metals sector's total Scope 1 and 2 emissions. This finding decisively shifts the focus of decarbonization from the extraction of niche minerals to the processing of these industrial behemoths.

Both materials are indispensable. Steel forms the backbone of wind turbines and infrastructure, while lightweight aluminum is crucial for electric vehicles and solar panel frames. Yet, their production remains one of the planet's most carbon-intensive industrial activities.

Traditional steelmaking in a blast furnace uses coke (a coal product) to reduce iron ore, a process that releases massive amounts of CO2. Similarly, aluminum smelting is incredibly electricity-intensive; in regions reliant on fossil fuels, this results in a huge carbon footprint. The report highlights that approximately 80% of the sector's emissions originate in Asia, a reflection of both the concentration of production facilities and the reliance on coal-heavy energy grids in key manufacturing nations like China.

Decarbonizing these two industries represents the sector's greatest climate challenge and its most significant opportunity. The technological pathways are known but daunting:

• For Steel: The industry is looking toward technologies like hydrogen-based direct reduced iron (H2-DRI), which uses green hydrogen instead of coal and emits water vapor instead of CO2. Paired with Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs) powered by renewable electricity, this could create near-zero-emission steel. Pioneers like H2 Green Steel in Sweden are building the first large-scale plants, but the cost and availability of green hydrogen remain major hurdles.

• For Aluminum: The holy grail is the development of inert anodes, a technology that replaces the carbon anodes in the smelting process, releasing pure oxygen instead of CO2. The ELYSIS joint venture between Alcoa and Rio Tinto is at the forefront of commercializing this technology. In the interim, the most immediate lever is shifting production to grids powered by renewable energy, primarily hydropower.

A Matter of Scope: Scrutinizing the Industry's Narrative

As with any industry-led data initiative, the ICMM report invites critical scrutiny. By focusing strictly on Scope 1 (direct on-site) and Scope 2 (purchased electricity) emissions, the analysis presents a clear but incomplete picture.

Excluded are Scope 3 emissions, a vast category that includes all other indirect emissions in a company's value chain, such as the transport of materials and the downstream use of sold products. For the mining sector, this is not a trivial omission. The carbon footprint of shipping millions of tons of ore across oceans and the emissions embedded in the manufacturing of massive mining equipment fall under this category.

Furthermore, the report acknowledges limitations, such as the exclusion of certain refining stages and gases due to data constraints. Critics may argue that such an analysis, while valuable for identifying hotspots like steel and aluminum, could be perceived as a strategic effort to downplay the overall environmental impact of increased mining activity, which also includes concerns like water use, biodiversity loss, and waste management.

ICMM appears to anticipate this critique, positioning the dataset as a transparent starting point for a broader conversation. Dr. Gagen noted that the dataset will evolve and invited stakeholders to "engage with the data, provide feedback or supplementary data to help improve its coverage, and collaborate with us further."

This new dataset places the mining and metals industry at a crucial crossroads. It is both an indispensable enabler of the clean energy transition and a major contributor to the climate problem it aims to solve. The report effectively argues that these are two separate issues: one of supply for new minerals, and one of deep decarbonization for traditional metals. Successfully navigating the path forward will require addressing both with unprecedented investment, innovation, and global collaboration, particularly within Asia's industrial heartlands where the bulk of emissions occur.