London School of Economics
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Critical minerals and green value chains

The global energy transition, alongside growing demand from digital infrastructure and rearmament programmes, is fundamentally reshaping critical mineral supply chains at a moment of acute geopolitical competition and economic uncertainty. Securing reliable access to lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, and other transition-critical materials has become a core challenge for governments managing the intersection of decarbonisation, energy security, and industrial competitiveness.

The Critical Minerals team at CETEx brings together quantitative research expertise with the broader LSE ecosystem to deliver rigorous, data-driven analysis for policymakers across the full supply chain, from resource extraction to downstream value addition. Our work spans advanced economies and EMDEs, with focused engagement across G7, India, ASEAN, and Latin America.

We work across three core research and policy areas:

Fiscal and economic opportunities — analysing the revenues, investment dynamics, and downstream value chain development that critical minerals present for producer economies, including the commodity pricing and market volatility that shape fiscal frameworks and transition finance decisions.

Geopolitics, trade, and international arrangements — examining how major-power competition, export controls, and industrial policy are reshaping supply chains, and evaluating the effectiveness of stockpiling strategies, bilateral agreements, and multilateral frameworks in managing supply vulnerabilities and building collective energy security.

Monetary and financial stability risks — assessing how supply concentration, price volatility, and disruptions to critical mineral value chains transmit into broader macroeconomic and financial system risks, including implications for inflation dynamics, and the exposure of financial institutions to transition-critical commodity shocks.

Critical minerals and green value chains team