Phd Position in Environmental Economics

**Profile for the PhD Position**

**Requirements for the PhD Position**
- Master’s Degree in economics
- Highly organised and capable of working independently;
- Excellent written and oral communication in English (both oral and written);
- Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work with others;
- Past electives in climate and environmental economics, innovation economics or international trade would be an asset;
- Strong analytical skills and solid quantitative background; past experience in handling large datasets would be an asset;

**What we offer**
- Individual mentoring and supervision of the PhD project;
- Full financial support, including travel money for conferences and summer schools;
- Excellent working conditions within the CIES located at the Maison de la Paix, individual desk and computing equipment;
- Collaboration and teamwork with an international team of researchers;
- Interactions with policymakers at international organisations and with private actors

**Project description**

Addressing climate change calls for a massive and very rapid transition from fossil-fuel to clean energy. Yet, a major obstacle to the energy transition often overlooked by economists is the critical reliance of future clean energy systems on a few essential minerals, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt or rare earths elements, vital to the production of batteries, wind turbines, solar cells, and electric motors. Many policy organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank or the International Energy Agency have recently raised concerns about the economic implications of disruptions in the supply of critical minerals. The overall objective of the research project is to provide a better understanding of how economic markets for minerals and clean energy are interrelated via international and domestic climate policies, global supply chains, technological change and trade and foreign direct investments linkages.

The first line of inquiry aims to explore the economic and policy implications of geopolitical challenges for the availability of critical minerals. Production, reserves and processing of minerals are concentrated in a small number of countries. China for instance accounts for more than 90 percent of global production of rare earths. Russia produces 10% of global nickel and the ongoing Ukraine’s war already caused nickel prices ̶ a key input to battery production ̶ to spike to unprecedented levels threatening to slow down the production of electric vehicles. Producer countries have thus the ability to behave strategically along the global supply chain and to exercise market power in both upstream mineral markets and downstream clean energy industries.

The second line of inquiry will investigate policy solutions to mitigate environmental challenges posed by the mining and extraction of critical minerals. Additional exploration and mining activities in advanced and developing economies could contribute to raise and diversify the supply of critical minerals. Yet, mounting concerns about the local environmental footprint of mining activities may restrict exploration and raise environmental and cleanup costs for the mining industry, creating thereby vulnerabilities in the supply of critical minerals. This part will investigate the role of technological change (using patent data) and FDI in particular.
The research team is composed of Joëlle Noailly, Steven Poelhekke, Gerard van der Meijden, two Postdoctoral Researchers and two PhD students, as well as additional academic and policy partners (University of Geneva, Colorado School of Mines, World Bank, World Intellectual Property Organization - among others).

**Application procedure**
- A cover letter of maximum 2 pages outlining your motivation and interest in the topic of the thesis related to the SNF project on ‘Critical Minerals and the Clean Energy Transition’ to which this PhD research will contribute.

Interviews (either online or in-person) for the position will take place in February.