Critical Minerals Series: Sustainability Considerations for Investors in Rare Earth Elements Mining

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are foundational to the global shift toward a low-carbon economy, playing a critical role in enabling clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines, solar panels, and advanced electronics.
Although REEs have proven to be essential to the energy transition, the value chain faces a variety of risks ranging from geopolitical risks to nature- and climate-related physical and transition risks
ISS STOXX data shows that REE mining companies’ main sustainability considerations include nature-related risks connected to water use, land use, climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss; and societal risks related to human rights violations such as forced and/or child labor and disregard for Indigenous and Local Communities.
Investors can use a blend of nature and social data, from companies’ sustainability performance to geographical designation of human rights risks, to inform their risk management strategies as they relate to REE companies.