Why the World Needs More Copper — a Lot More Copper

Avoiding a climate catastrophe is often portrayed as a question of political will. Yet the push to reduce carbon emissions is also a daunting technical and societal challenge. Retooling power and transportation systems to run on renewable energy will require far more copper than the companies that produce it are currently committed to deliver.

The question is whether a traditionally cautious mining industry — grappling with increasingly rigorous regulations — will embrace the scale of investment needed to rewire the world. In an indication of how difficult it is to develop new copper projects, BHP Group Ltd. has proposed a $39 billion takeover of Anglo American Plc, part of a larger trend of mergers and acquisitions as metal producers look to buy rather than build production growth. Failure by the industry to deliver sufficient copper supplies could throw the transition to cleaner power sources off course.