According to an announcement made at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) held in Montreal, seven countries have formed a mining alliance to make higher environmental and labor standards for the production and procurement of critical mineral materials.

The Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance is composed of the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, the UK, and Japan. It plans to implement the same standards for the production and procurement of mineral resources such as lithium, cobalt, copper, and nickel in the future. These critical minerals are essential to electric vehicles-used rechargeable batteries, solar panels, and energy storage.

The World Bank predicted that demand for critical minerals will be up by 500% by 2050.