28 Apr Raw Matters: A Podcast by Our Member KU Leuven
Our member KU Leuven has launched Raw Matters, a brand-new podcast series exploring the critical raw materials that underpin today’s geopolitical, industrial, and technological transformations. From clean energy and electric mobility to digital technologies and defence systems, the series highlights one essential reality: modern societies depend fundamentally on secure, sustainable, and resilient raw material supply chains.
Hosted by Peter Tom Jones (Director of SIM² KU Leuven) and Julia Poliscanova (Senior Director at T&E), Raw Matters brings together leading voices from academia, industry, policy, and civil society to unpack the tensions, trade-offs, and transformations shaping the global critical minerals landscape. Across its episodes, the podcast explores how raw materials are increasingly at the heart of geopolitical competition, industrial strategy, and Europe’s green transition.
Here an overview of the first five episodes:
Episode 1 sets the stage, examining the global geopolitics of critical minerals. It dives into the intensifying US–China rivalry and its global spillovers, the strategic positioning of “middle powers” in an increasingly fragmented world, and Europe’s ongoing struggle to move from ambition to implementation in its critical raw materials strategy. Referencing landmark political speeches and global policy debates, the episode lays bare the paradoxes and dilemmas at the heart of today’s raw materials race.
Episode 2 turns to the future of green steelmaking in Europe, a sector often overlooked in the critical raw materials debate despite its foundational role in modern civilisation. Featuring Adolfo Aiello (EUROFER) alongside Peter Tom Jones and Prof. Bart Blanpain (SIM² KU Leuven), the discussion explores why decarbonising steel is essential for Europe’s industrial future. It examines competing technological pathways towards climate-neutral steel, the evolving business case for green steel in a world shaped by subsidies, trade distortions, and geopolitical competition, and the role of instruments such as CBAM and the EU Emissions Trading System in enabling, or constraining, Europe’s transition.
Episode 3 shifts the focus to China’s mine-to-electric vehicle (EV) supply chains. Journalist and author Henry Sanderson provides expert insight into how raw materials flow from extraction to battery production and ultimately into EV manufacturing. The episode unpacks China’s dominant position across these value chains and explores the strategic, economic, and geopolitical implications of this control for the global clean mobility transition.
Episode 4 takes a deep dive into Europe’s carbon pricing architecture with Jos Delbeke, one of the chief architects of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). In conversation with the hosts and Prof. Bart Blanpain, the episode asks whether the ETS remains fit for purpose in a rapidly changing industrial world—provocatively framing it as “an old Nokia phone in a smart phone world.” It explores the system’s origins, its current challenges, and the reforms needed to ensure it continues to support both decarbonisation and industrial competitiveness, particularly in energy-intensive sectors such as steel.
Episode 5 brings a crucial and often underrepresented perspective: that of workers in Europe’s industrial transition. Featuring Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary of industrial Europe, the episode highlights the social dimension of raw materials and industrial policy. It addresses job losses in key sectors, labour conditions in global battery supply chains, and the need to ensure that Europe’s industrial transformation is socially just. As Kirton-Darling powerfully states, “Made in Europe must mean made with quality, made with responsibility, and made with the people of Europe at its heart.”
Together, these episodes make Raw Matters a unique platform for understanding the interconnected challenges of raw materials, climate policy, industrial strategy, and geopolitical competition.
Watch all podcast episodes here >>
