Maritime transportation moves about 80 percent of what the world’s economy needs to function. The historical relationship between global GDP growth and maritime trade has been consistent and does not appear likely to change. However, there is a push to transform the world’s economy from one powered by fossil fuels to one relying solely on renewable energy. This requires disrupting the centuries-long GDP-maritime growth link.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that the volumes of critical and rare earth minerals required to build the necessary equipment that will enable a “clean” energy transition must increase by four to six times the volume of 2020. The IEA ignored the global demand growth for traditional minerals critical for growing our economy, such as iron ore for steel and bauxite for aluminum. It also ignored the growing demand for agricultural grains as the world population increases and living standards improve.

Meeting the IEA’s critical minerals forecast means expanding existing and creating new supply chains. It means discovering new mineral deposits, opening new mines and building additional refineries to extract from the raw ores those prized minerals needed to make the components of these clean energy technologies. The........

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