The Asian Development Bank and the WTO Secretariat has jointly launched a new database that would help facilitate greater transparency into the trade in critical minerals with a view toward supporting the world’s transition toward clean energy. Dubbed the Trade in Critical Minerals (TiCM) database, it was launched on 20 November in the Trade and Investment House as part of the COP29 climate change conference here in Baku.
This initiative provides a comprehensive platform that consolidates vital information on trade flows, tariffs, and trade policies for 250 critical minerals and related products across their value chains. The database is expected to play a significant role in advancing renewable energy objectives, including the tripling of renewable energy capacity and the doubling of energy efficiency by 2030.
Critical minerals including lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements form the crucial content of many clean energy technologies – batteries, wind turbines, electric vehicles – where demand rises alongside global goals. Ensuring such transparency in and collaboration around the trade in critical minerals thus assumes a sense of urgency. This is a TiCM database which provides data of unprecedented level of detail with a view toward assisting stakeholders with analyses of the flow of these materials and policy initiatives in an accessible, easy-to-read visual format.
The database aggregates data from publicly available sources, and bilateral trade and tariff information are drawn from the WTO Analytical Databases. Trade policies are incorporated from the WTO Trade Monitoring Database and the ePing trade measures platform, which creates a centralized repository of critical minerals-related trade data. Links to HS codes further enhance the usability of the database by policymakers and industry stakeholders.
To make data more user-friendly, the TiCM database allows for advanced visualization tools, which include bar charts, tree maps, and network graphs. Through these tools, users can understand trade networks and identify product specialization patterns and principal trading partners in minerals. A network graph would, for example, show world trade relationships about lithium, in which countries that dominate exports and imports are clear, while a tree map could illustrate tariff structures across regions.
The collaboration between ADB and the WTO Secretariat underlines the urgent need for robust supply chains in critical minerals to facilitate a sustainable energy transition. The TiCM database aims to make trade data more accessible and comprehensible, fostering collaboration among governments, businesses, and international organizations. This will help ensure informed decision-making on critical minerals trade policies that are essential for building sustainable and inclusive supply chains.
This is against the backdrop of an increased demand for critical minerals by the world at large in relation to renewable energy technologies. The challenge of the policymakers and other stakeholders will be on two levels: they need to secure supplies that are reliable while at the same time ensuring that extraction, processing, and trade in those minerals take sustainable forms. The TiCM database is designed to address these challenges by providing a transparent and detailed view of the critical minerals landscape, empowering stakeholders to make decisions that balance economic growth with environmental responsibility.
Moreover, the database aligns with broader international goals to mitigate climate change by accelerating the adoption of clean energy technologies. Cobalt and rare earth elements are critical in manufacturing electric vehicle batteries, while lithium is a cornerstone of energy storage solutions. Ensuring a resilient supply chain for these materials becomes imperative as countries strive to meet their climate commitments.
The TiCM database is also likely to facilitate international cooperation, such as the identification of opportunities and bottlenecks in the critical minerals trade. Through its detailed analysis of trade patterns and policies, the platform may contribute to building partnerships and agreements that improve the resilience of the supply chain. For example, it may allow countries to discover new trading partners or fine-tune their tariff structure to enhance their competitiveness in international markets.
The launch of the TiCM database is a step forward in the complexity of critical minerals trade. Enhancing transparency and fostering collaboration, the joint effort of the ADB and WTO Secretariat contributes to the development of a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient supply chain for critical minerals, supporting the global transition to a clean energy future. As the globe confronts challenges from climate change and energy security, initiatives of this nature become even more pivotal as they promote the need for collective action to attain common objectives.