prof. univ. dr. Ionuţ PURICA

Most of the time, critical resources and infrastructures have determined the behavior of states and economic structures both locally and internationally. To the extent that states have evolved technologically, they have often developed their military but also economic access to resources and created critical infrastructures from the point of view of accessing resources.

The types of resources considered have changed over time, but the behavior regarding their control and use has remained with a certain level of invariability. Some examples are relevant:

Cuba has large deposits of Zinc. As long as Zinc is exported, the political regime should remain stable (regardless of the type of regime).

Vietnam has deposits of uranium and titanium. As long as the benefit of what was extracted was greater than the cost of war, the war continued. When low-cost extraction was exhausted, the war stopped. Now another resource is used, i.e. cheap labor obtained through commercial networks.

Kosovo has chrome deposits, and the chrome rolling mill is in Albania. It is therefore right that there should be an independent state that can export chrome.

Afghanistan, in addition to its sovereign deposits, is also an access route for transporting gas from Uzbekistan to ports that go beyond the Strait of Hormuz, possibly controlled by Iran. If the Taliban regime accepts the transfer, then it is no longer necessary to maintain troops in Afghanistan. This could be a partial explanation for the recent withdrawal of US troops, one other explanation being that the United States had become a gas exporter and no longer needed the pipelines.

Norway has important gas deposits in the North Sea, a situation that keeps it outside the EU to maintain control over these deposits. When those deposits are exhausted, the accession of Norway to the EU could be seen. The USA has become an exporter of oil and liquefied natural gas thanks to the extraction technologies deve-loped in the last 15 years. Before this development, the USA was the largest importer of petroleum products.

The Russian Federation was, until the invasion of Ukraine, the largest supplier of natural gas to the EU. Through this, the EU economy is controlled so that any action hostile to Russian politics is sanctioned through the gas pipeline network (see, for example, the reaction to EU opposition to the Russian actions in Abkhazia in 2008, leading to the interruption of gas supplies for a month). Russia’s advantage is that it also delivers gas to China, so a decrease in quantities to the EU can be compensated. Moreover, recently two components are controlled, quantities and prices controlled by the mechanisms of the energy market, which is used destructively for the eco-nomies of the EU. In this way, additional money is obtained at a time when it is needed

to finance Russia’s military measures against Ukraine and, indirectly, NATO. Paradoxically, NATO member countries in the EU were financing measures against NATO. The emergence of gas exports from the USA, as well as other sources (mainly Qatar), may diminish Russia’s influence. A potential reaction to diminish the supply of LNG from Qatar with an impact on the EU is the recent attack of Hamas on Israel and the strong response that may trigger a reaction by Qatar to stop deliveries of LNG, especially at the beginning of winter. Another reason could be to increase the risks of an alternative route through India – Middle East to Europe that threatens the present one passing through the Russian Federation.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are still important in the export of oil and liquefied gas, but they will gradually lose their importance due to the introduction of electric transport technologies and electricity generation based on renewables and fission or fusion in the foreseeable future. Without oil money, these countries will have to reinvent themselves, process that is underway through investments in both tourism and nuclear power plants.

Peru and other countries with lithium reserves can become important because of Li-ion battery technology, which is needed in large quantities for electric vehicles and energy storage. Other types of batteries have been recently developed, e.g., with sulfur, which will increase the importance of the various states possessing such resources.

China has important deposits of rare earths needed for communication tech-nologies as well as in other fields. Iraq also has such deposits and other necessary resources. It is therefore important that the economic situation is stable so that exports are made without interruption.

Mali, in Africa, is characterized by uranium ore reserves exported to the French economy based mostly on electricity from nuclear power plants. That is why possible political instability in this country triggers intervention by troops from France and its allies. The resources of African countries are sought by various countries, each offering advantages to the local administration or trying to destabilize the supporters of the other.

Kazakhstan is particularly important for its oil, gas, uranium, and other resources. Possible political instability can greatly disrupt the international economy. Thus, a quick and harsh reaction from Russian troops is generated by Russia’s interest in Kazakhstani reserves. Those resources are not pursued solely by Russia, so internal political conflicts must be viewed within an international context.

Regarding critical infrastructures, it must be understood that they refer to economic flows consisting of money, energy, information, products, and work. Thus, the globalization of the financial system represents a way to control money flows beyond the power of each state.

Transport networks for oil, gas, electricity, uranium ore, and coal are being developed at the level of the entire planet. The information is supported by networks that include submarine cables to land networks and satellites. Moreover, individual terminals associated with social networks and with increased computing power, allow the accumulation of information at the individual level that have effects not yet fully known for the economy and the values of life. In addition, energy systems associated with information systems represent the biggest “machine” created by human society. The transport networks produced are developed at the planetary level and a disruption, for example, in the Suez Canal can affect the entire planet.

Work is also an important flow, and the liberalization of work produces special effects such as migrations; see, e.g., the situation in the EU, as well as elements of evolution and technological transfer that are sometimes unwanted, such as the example of China, which in the last 35 years has attracted the world’s manufacturing based on cheap labor. At the same time, it has attracted technologies associated with manufactured products, leading to a major technological leap for this country.

It is important to note that critical networks are controlled. Moneyed through the reference interest rate of the central banks works through the minimum wage that ensures the restoration of capacity for a new economic cycle, energy and information are not controlled at a centralized level (although partial control exists for fuel quantities and their prices in an indirect way), which leads to high volatility in these networks, and products are monitored through the World Trade Organization and various specific elements.

We will not talk about the inter-correlation between the various critical flows in order not to lengthen this analysis. However, the dynamics of the world economy are becoming nonlinear with effects that can be destructive in the short term and in areas that exceed the level of states or even economic and geographic regions.

This leads to an oscillating evolution of the economy that produces so-called crises periodically. The old biblical story of the seven fat cows and seven thin cows in the sense of the climatic influence on the food availability for the population becomes more complex due to the nonlinear effects that lead to crises due not only to climate changes but also to other causes related to the dynamics of the critical networks mentioned above.

An important influence is the approach based on “fashion” principles. The development decision can be influenced by what are called “memes” ideas that produce collective behavior not always based on optimality elements of human systems. An example is Germany’s decision to close nuclear power plants, although this produces a short-term increase in the use of coal, which leads to adverse climate effects.

Whoever makes decisions based on integrated considerations of evolution will have a competitive advantage in the medium and long term in sustainable develop-ment. Influencing the providers of resources like gas and oil may be accomplished through various channels such as socio-psychological, religious, economic, and financial. As an example, a war in Israel-Gaza, or Iran, may trigger a drastic reduction in the supply of gas and oil from Arab countries to the rest of the world, with impacts on other ongoing conflicts, is they military or economical.

RESOURCE MATERIALS AND RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES

‘In theory, theory and practice are the same.

In practice, they are not.’

Albert Einstein

Effective recycling requires sophisticated knowledge about the components present in the end-of-life (EoL) products stream, which cannot be achieved with mixed recycling in broad categories. The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) is satisfied that the case for moving toward a product-centric approach to collection and recycling is strong and should feature in the development of future EU policy (EASAC Priorities for critical materials for a circular economy, 2016).

• A more product-centric approach could improve currently low recovery levels by encouraging the building of EoL recovery into dedicated collection schemes to provide feedstock for specialized recycling. Options include deposit schemes, including return and recycling costs in the purchase price, trade-in which offers a financial reward for return, or contractual obligation. The current situation whereby much of Europe’s e-waste leaves the EU (in many cases for informal and inefficient recycling in Asia or Africa) constitutes a significant leakage of critical metals requiring attention. A level playing field is needed so that low-quality recycling or avoiding recycling through legal loopholes does not continue to offer the cheapest option. The current proposals to amend the Extended Producer Responsibility requirements provide a mechanism to incorporate a special emphasis and priority on products containing economically significant quantities of critical materials. The supply of critical metals requires a baseline technological infrastructure that can recover metals from complex mixtures, thus extending the concept of criticality from that of individual elements to the infrastructure necessary for their cyclical use. The EU should evaluate the adequacy of the EU’s “Critical Metallurgical Infrastructure” for the critical metals decided and consider measures to strengthen it.

Product design should consider the complexity of recycling and avoid incom-patible metal mixtures or joints between product parts that hinder recycling. The EASAC notes, however, that trends driven by consumer convenience and demand continue to introduce burdens rather than facilitate recycling. The Commission should seek to engage consumer groups as well as manufacturers in a dialogue on ways to reduce or eliminate such inherent conflicts so that “design for resource efficiency” becomes standard practice.

• Developing effective recycling technology can require considerable investment. Particularly with critical materials, the circular economy policy must provide market signals that incentives all companies to work toward a circular economy. The Horizon 2020 program should also support research and development on critical materials recovery and recycling ranging from the basic science underpinning the behavior of metals and their mixtures to novel separation and purification processes.

The main elements of the raw materials initiative Pillar 1: Secure access to raw materials by ensuring undistorted world market conditions:

• Through diplomacy with resource-rich countries such as China and resource-dependent countries such as the United States and Japan for cooperation;

• Through international cooperation via for a such as G8 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to raise awareness about the issues and create dialogue;

• By making access to primary and secondary raw materials a priority for the EU trade and regulatory policy, to ensure that measures that distort open market trade such as restrictions of exports and dual pricing are eliminated;

Pillar 2: Foster sustainable supply of raw materials from European countries by:

• Making sure the framework has the right conditions in place to prevent delays in permitting that can inhibit new projects.