what is a critical review dissertation

How to Write Critical Reviews

When you are asked to write a critical review of a book or article, you will need to identify, summarize, and evaluate the ideas and information the author has presented. In other words, you will be examining another person’s thoughts on a topic from your point of view.

Your stand must go beyond your “gut reaction” to the work and be based on your knowledge (readings, lecture, experience) of the topic as well as on factors such as criteria stated in your assignment or discussed by you and your instructor.

Make your stand clear at the beginning of your review, in your evaluations of specific parts, and in your concluding commentary.

Remember that your goal should be to make a few key points about the book or article, not to discuss everything the author writes.

Understanding the Assignment

To write a good critical review, you will have to engage in the mental processes of analyzing (taking apart) the work–deciding what its major components are and determining how these parts (i.e., paragraphs, sections, or chapters) contribute to the work as a whole.

Analyzing the work will help you focus on how and why the author makes certain points and prevent you from merely summarizing what the author says. Assuming the role of an analytical reader will also help you to determine whether or not the author fulfills the stated purpose of the book or article and enhances your understanding or knowledge of a particular topic.

Be sure to read your assignment thoroughly before you read the article or book. Your instructor may have included specific guidelines for you to follow. Keeping these guidelines in mind as you read the article or book can really help you write your paper!

Also, note where the work connects with what you’ve studied in the course. You can make the most efficient use of your reading and notetaking time if you are an active reader; that is, keep relevant questions in mind and jot down page numbers as well as your responses to ideas that appear to be significant as you read.

Please note: The length of your introduction and overview, the number of points you choose to review, and the length of your conclusion should be proportionate to the page limit stated in your assignment and should reflect the complexity of the material being reviewed as well as the expectations of your reader.

Write the introduction

Below are a few guidelines to help you write the introduction to your critical review.

Introduce your review appropriately

Begin your review with an introduction appropriate to your assignment.

If your assignment asks you to review only one book and not to use outside sources, your introduction will focus on identifying the author, the title, the main topic or issue presented in the book, and the author’s purpose in writing the book.

If your assignment asks you to review the book as it relates to issues or themes discussed in the course, or to review two or more books on the same topic, your introduction must also encompass those expectations.

Explain relationships

For example, before you can review two books on a topic, you must explain to your reader in your introduction how they are related to one another.

Within this shared context (or under this “umbrella”) you can then review comparable aspects of both books, pointing out where the authors agree and differ.

In other words, the more complicated your assignment is, the more your introduction must accomplish.

Finally, the introduction to a book review is always the place for you to establish your position as the reviewer (your thesis about the author’s thesis).

As you write, consider the following questions:

• Is the book a memoir, a treatise, a collection of facts, an extended argument, etc.? Is the article a documentary, a write-up of primary research, a position paper, etc.?
• Who is the author? What does the preface or foreword tell you about the author’s purpose, background, and credentials? What is the author’s approach to the topic (as a journalist? a historian? a researcher?)?
• What is the main topic or problem addressed? How does the work relate to a discipline, to a profession, to a particular audience, or to other works on the topic?
• What is your critical evaluation of the work (your thesis)? Why have you taken that position? What criteria are you basing your position on?

Provide an overview

In your introduction, you will also want to provide an overview. An overview supplies your reader with certain general information not appropriate for including in the introduction but necessary to understanding the body of the review.

Generally, an overview describes your book’s division into chapters, sections, or points of discussion. An overview may also include background information about the topic, about your stand, or about the criteria you will use for evaluation.

The overview and the introduction work together to provide a comprehensive beginning for (a “springboard” into) your review.

• What are the author’s basic premises? What issues are raised, or what themes emerge? What situation (i.e., racism on college campuses) provides a basis for the author’s assertions?
• How informed is my reader? What background information is relevant to the entire book and should be placed here rather than in a body paragraph?

Write the body

The body is the center of your paper, where you draw out your main arguments. Below are some guidelines to help you write it.

Organize using a logical plan

Organize the body of your review according to a logical plan. Here are two options:

• First, summarize, in a series of paragraphs, those major points from the book that you plan to discuss; incorporating each major point into a topic sentence for a paragraph is an effective organizational strategy. Second, discuss and evaluate these points in a following group of paragraphs. (There are two dangers lurking in this pattern–you may allot too many paragraphs to summary and too few to evaluation, or you may re-summarize too many points from the book in your evaluation section.)
• Alternatively, you can summarize and evaluate the major points you have chosen from the book in a point-by-point schema. That means you will discuss and evaluate point one within the same paragraph (or in several if the point is significant and warrants extended discussion) before you summarize and evaluate point two, point three, etc., moving in a logical sequence from point to point to point. Here again, it is effective to use the topic sentence of each paragraph to identify the point from the book that you plan to summarize or evaluate.

Questions to keep in mind as you write

With either organizational pattern, consider the following questions:

• What are the author’s most important points? How do these relate to one another? (Make relationships clear by using transitions: “In contrast,” an equally strong argument,” “moreover,” “a final conclusion,” etc.).
• What types of evidence or information does the author present to support his or her points? Is this evidence convincing, controversial, factual, one-sided, etc.? (Consider the use of primary historical material, case studies, narratives, recent scientific findings, statistics.)
• Where does the author do a good job of conveying factual material as well as personal perspective? Where does the author fail to do so? If solutions to a problem are offered, are they believable, misguided, or promising?
• Which parts of the work (particular arguments, descriptions, chapters, etc.) are most effective and which parts are least effective? Why?
• Where (if at all) does the author convey personal prejudice, support illogical relationships, or present evidence out of its appropriate context?

Keep your opinions distinct and cite your sources

Remember, as you discuss the author’s major points, be sure to distinguish consistently between the author’s opinions and your own.

Keep the summary portions of your discussion concise, remembering that your task as a reviewer is to re-see the author’s work, not to re-tell it.

And, importantly, if you refer to ideas from other books and articles or from lecture and course materials, always document your sources, or else you might wander into the realm of plagiarism.

Include only that material which has relevance for your review and use direct quotations sparingly. The Writing Center has other handouts to help you paraphrase text and introduce quotations.

Write the conclusion

You will want to use the conclusion to state your overall critical evaluation.

You have already discussed the major points the author makes, examined how the author supports arguments, and evaluated the quality or effectiveness of specific aspects of the book or article.

Now you must make an evaluation of the work as a whole, determining such things as whether or not the author achieves the stated or implied purpose and if the work makes a significant contribution to an existing body of knowledge.

Consider the following questions:

• Is the work appropriately subjective or objective according to the author’s purpose?
• How well does the work maintain its stated or implied focus? Does the author present extraneous material? Does the author exclude or ignore relevant information?
• How well has the author achieved the overall purpose of the book or article? What contribution does the work make to an existing body of knowledge or to a specific group of readers? Can you justify the use of this work in a particular course?
• What is the most important final comment you wish to make about the book or article? Do you have any suggestions for the direction of future research in the area? What has reading this work done for you or demonstrated to you?

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Writing a Critical Review

The advice below is a general guide only. We strongly recommend that you also follow your assignment instructions and seek clarification from your lecturer/tutor if needed.

Purpose of a critical review

The critical review is a writing task that asks you to summarise and evaluate a text. The critical review can be of a book, a chapter, or a journal article. Writing the critical review usually requires you to read the selected text in detail and to read other related texts so you can present a fair and reasonable evaluation of the selected text. 

What is meant by critical?

At university, to be critical does not mean to criticise in a negative manner. Rather, it requires you to question the information and opinions in a text and present your evaluation or judgement of the text. To do this well, you should attempt to understand the topic from different perspectives (i.e. read related texts), and in relation to the theories, approaches and frameworks in your course.

What is meant by evaluation or judgement?

This is where you decide the strengths and weaknesses of a text. This is usually based on specific criteria. Evaluating requires an understanding of not just the content of the text, but also an understanding of a text’s purpose, the intended audience, and why it is structured the way it is.

What is meant by analysis?

Analysis requires separating the content and concepts of a text into their main components and then understanding how these interrelate, connect and possibly influence each other.

  Next: Structure of a critical review

Essay and assignment writing guide.

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• Answering assignment questions
• Editing checklist
• Structure of a critical review
• General criteria for evaluating
• Sample extracts
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Write a Critical Review

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Video: How to Integrate Critical Voice into Your Literature Review

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• To introduce the source, its main ideas, key details, and its place within the field
• To present your assessment of the quality of the source

In general, the introduction of your critical review should include

• Author(s) name
• Title of the source 
• What is the author's central purpose?
• What methods or theoretical frameworks were used to accomplish this purpose?
• What topic areas, chapters, sections, or key points did the author use to structure the source?
• What were the results or findings of the study?
• How were the results or findings interpreted? How were they related to the original problem (author's view of evidence rather than objective findings)?
• Who conducted the research? What were/are their interests?
• Why did they do this research?
• Was this research pertinent only within the author’s field, or did it have broader (even global) relevance?
• On what prior research was this source-based? What gap is the author attempting to address?
• How important was the research question posed by the researcher?
• Your overall opinion of the quality of the source. Think of this like a thesis or main argument.
• Present your evaluation of the source, providing evidence from the text (or other sources) to support your assessment.

In general, the body of your critical review should include

• Is the material organized logically and with appropriate headings?
• Are there stylistic problems in logical, clarity or language?
• Were the author(s) able to answer the question (test the hypothesis) raised
• What was the objective of the study?
• Does all the information lead coherently to the purpose of the study?
• Are the methods valid for studying the problem or gap?
• Could the study be duplicated from the information provided?
• Is the experimental design logical and reliable?
• How are the data organized? Is it logical and interpretable?
• Do the results reveal what the researcher intended?
• Do the authors present a logical interpretation of the results?
• Have the limitations of the research been addressed?
• Does the study consider other key studies in the field or other research possibilities or directions?
• How was the significance of the work described?
• Follow the structure of the journal article (e.g. Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion) - highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in each section
• Present the weaknesses of the article, and then the strengths of the article (or vice versa).
• Group your ideas according to different research themes presented in the source
• Group the strengths and weaknesses of the article into the following areas: originality, reliability, validity, relevance, and presentation

Purpose: 

• To summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the article as a whole
• To assert the article’s practical and theoretical significance

In general, the conclusion of your critical review should include

• A restatement of your overall opinion
• A summary of the key strengths and weaknesses of the research that support your overall opinion of the source
• Did the research reported in this source result in the formation of new questions, theories or hypotheses by the authors or other researchers?
• Have other researchers subsequently supported or refuted the observations or interpretations of these authors?
• Did the research provide new factual information, a new understanding of a phenomenon in the field, a new research technique?
• Did the research produce any practical applications? 
• What are the social, political, technological, or medical implications of this research?
• How do you evaluate the significance of the research? 
• Find out what style guide you are required to follow (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) and follow the guidelines to create a reference list (may be called a bibliography or works cited).
• Be sure to include citations in the text when you refer to the source itself or external sources. 
• Check out our Cite Your Sources Guide for more information. 
• Read assignment instructions carefully and refer to them throughout the writing process.
• Make an outline of your main sections before you write.
• If your professor does not assign a topic or source, you must choose one yourself. Select a source that interests you and is written clearly so you can understand it.
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Library Guides

Literature reviews: criticality.

• Criticality

Express Critical Analysis

The literature review of a dissertation should include critical analysis. You cannot simply juxtapose the literature you find: you have to  evaluate and draw conclusions from it.  

Paragraph level  

Try expressing your voice in each paragraph of your literature review. Write strong paragraphs. In strong paragraphs your voice can be heard in the topic sentence, development (where you analyse and compare/contrast the sources, sometimes as individual pieces, sometimes in a synthesis) and, even more easily, in the concluding sentence, where you present the "therefore" of the paragraph. 

How to express criticality at the paragraph level:  

Identify the significance of the sources, and why the points they are making are relevant  

Make connections between the sources 

Compare and contrast sources, literatures  

Accept/adopt points made by the sources, with reasons  

Reject the points made by the sources, with reasons (e.g., limitations in the methodology; out of date; limited scope; geographical delimitation) 

Indicate the position you are taking in your own work on the theories and concepts presented by the sources 

Show how limitations in the existing literature create a research gap for you 

Organise the materials, synthesising them in an original way, that sheds new light on the topic.  

To find out more about paragraph writing, check out the Assignment Writing Guides.

Literature review level 

Try to take ownership of the literature review. Remember the purposes of the review (providing background on the subject you are researching and identifying a gap in the existing literature on this subject). Thus, throughout the review:   

Identify the key themes relevant to your subject matter  

Identify the most logical and effective order for your themes 

Relate the sources back to the dissertation's research question 

Shed new light on the topic 

Draw conclusions on the existing literature  

Identify gaps in the literature  

Your literature review should present an argument (which you can recap in the concluding paragraph of the literature review). For instance, 

"The literature says/illustrates/reveals that... there are debates in the literature as of... it can be understood from the literature that... however, there are gaps in the literature... the literature does not specifically address (specific sector/location/population)... there is a lack of independent/recent studies on...  therefore in order to answer the research question(s) (you can repeat the question) this dissertation uses method xyz, as illustrated in the next section (if applicable)". 

Manchester University’s  academic phrase bank  is a great resource for learning new words and phrases. 

Extra Resources

For extra help with all aspects of study skills including how to undertake literature reviews, appointments are available with learning advisors on Engage. 

Appointments are also available with an Academic Engagement Librarian to discuss any issues you might be having with research.

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Critical review

You may be asked to write a ‘critical review’ of any type of text, such as a book, a journal article, or a chapter in a book. A critical review is often set to help you develop skills identifying an argument and judging its merits. You may be given specific criteria to use for reviewing the text, so do check your own assignment brief.

Scroll down for our recommended strategies and resources. 

Summary and evaluation

Most critical reviews will involve some summarising of the main argument of the text and some judgement about the quality and usefulness of the argument. The evaluation and judgement parts normally count for more marks. This guide gives you questions to help prompt both your summary and evaluation, plus an annotated example of a critical review:

Difference between summary and evaluation (Academic English UK)

Read the text carefully a number of times. Take notes on the author's argument and how well they have made this argument. Both of the guides below have useful questions to help structure your reading and your writing when doing a critical review. The first guide is suitable for most texts, and the second guide focuses on reviewing a journal article that presents primary research: 

Writing a critique (IOE Writing Centre, UCL)

Planning and writing a critical review (University of Southampton)

Critical thinking

The basis of any critical review is being able to think critically about what you are reading. Have a look at our critical thinking page for more:

Critical thinking resources (Centre for Academic Development)

Book review / critical appraisal?

Confusingly, some names for assignments can overlap or be used to mean the same thing. You may have been asked to do a book review or a critical appraisal . While these often have similar approaches, there are some specific differences depending on your subject. Check with your lecturer if you aren’t sure what you are being asked to do.

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• What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

Published on 22 February 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 7 June 2022.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research.

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarise sources – it analyses, synthesises, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

Why write a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1: search for relevant literature, step 2: evaluate and select sources, step 3: identify themes, debates and gaps, step 4: outline your literature review’s structure, step 5: write your literature review, frequently asked questions about literature reviews, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a dissertation or thesis, you will have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position yourself in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your dissertation addresses a gap or contributes to a debate

You might also have to write a literature review as a stand-alone assignment. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of scholarly debates around a topic.

The content will look slightly different in each case, but the process of conducting a literature review follows the same steps. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research objectives and questions .

If you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment, you will have to choose a focus and develop a central question to direct your search. Unlike a dissertation research question, this question has to be answerable without collecting original data. You should be able to answer it based only on a review of existing publications.

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research topic. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list if you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can use boolean operators to help narrow down your search:

Read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

To identify the most important publications on your topic, take note of recurring citations. If the same authors, books or articles keep appearing in your reading, make sure to seek them out.

You probably won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on the topic – you’ll have to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your questions.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models and methods? Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• How does the publication contribute to your understanding of the topic? What are its key insights and arguments?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can find out how many times an article has been cited on Google Scholar – a high citation count means the article has been influential in the field, and should certainly be included in your literature review.

The scope of your review will depend on your topic and discipline: in the sciences you usually only review recent literature, but in the humanities you might take a long historical perspective (for example, to trace how a concept has changed in meaning over time).

Remember that you can use our template to summarise and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using!

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It’s important to keep track of your sources with references to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where you compile full reference information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

You can use our free APA Reference Generator for quick, correct, consistent citations.

To begin organising your literature review’s argument and structure, you need to understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly-visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat – this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organising the body of a literature review. You should have a rough idea of your strategy before you start writing.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarising sources in order.

Try to analyse patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organise your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text, your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

If you are writing the literature review as part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate your central problem or research question and give a brief summary of the scholarly context. You can emphasise the timeliness of the topic (“many recent studies have focused on the problem of x”) or highlight a gap in the literature (“while there has been much research on x, few researchers have taken y into consideration”).

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, make sure to follow these tips:

• Summarise and synthesise: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole.
• Analyse and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole.
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources.
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transitions and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts.

In the conclusion, you should summarise the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasise their significance.

If the literature review is part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge, or discuss how you have drawn on existing theories and methods to build a framework for your research. This can lead directly into your methodology section.

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a dissertation , thesis, research paper , or proposal .

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarise yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your  dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

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Cannes film festival 2024: all of deadline’s movie reviews, ‘megalopolis’: what the critics are saying.

By Andreas Wiseman

Andreas Wiseman

Executive Editor, International & Strategy

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After months of speculation, the critical book has finally been opened on Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis . The early word? Predominantly positive, with some very high highs and inevitably a few low lows.

Below, we run through some of the first reactions.

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He continued: “Halfway through, there’s a  very  audacious gimmick that tears down the fourth wall in ways younger filmmakers can only dream of. Coppola breaks many of the cardinal rules of filmmaking in the film’s 138 minutes but it upholds the most important one: it is never, ever boring, and it will inspire just as many artists as the audiences it will alienate.”

RELATED: ‘Megalopolis’ Debuts At Cannes With 7-Minute Standing Ovation

In a positive notice, Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri dissected the film’s “absolute madness” and called it the “craziest movie I have ever seen”: “There is nothing in  Megalopolis  that feels like something out of a “normal” movie. It has its own logic and cadence and vernacular. The characters speak in archaic phrases and words, mixing shards of Shakespeare, Ovid, and at one point straight-up Latin. Some characters speak in rhyme, others just in high-minded prose that feels like maybe it should be in verse.”

Indiewire’s David Ehrlich said on X: “The silliness is a feature, not a bug! a garish, epic, & utterly singular $120 million self-portrait that’s also a fable about the fall of ancient Rome & a plea to save our civilization (and its cinema) from itself. big fan.”

RELATED: Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or Winners Through The Years: A Photo Gallery

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Rolling Stone ‘s David Fear called the film “truly epic”: “So long as there are people who love movies that are actually about things, and think about the past 6,000 years of human civilization, there is an audience for this.”

RELATED: Cannes Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

David Jenkins of Little White Lies was also in the pro camp, posting to X: “Desole haters… Megalopolis rules.”

The UK’s Daily Telegraph gave the movie four stars, saying, “Coppola’s latest is like Succession crossed with Batman Forever and a lava lamp…Aubrey Plaza is fantastic in this full-body sensory bath movie which follows a struggle for power among the elites of New Rome.”

Not everyone was as glowing. The Guardian gave the film only two stars, saying: “Coppola’s passion project is megabloated and megaboring.”

RELATED: Aubrey Plaza Says Francis Coppola “Doesn’t Need My Defense”, Reveals The “Collaboration And Experimentation” Of ‘Megalopolis’

Vanity Fair ‘s Richard Lawson echoed that theme, with the brand noting in its headline: “Francis Ford Coppola’s  Megalopolis  Is a Passion Project Gone Horribly Wrong”, before continuing, “Maybe some cinephiles will see value in the  Godfather  director’s long-gestating epic. Many more, though, will be left scratching their heads.”

Tim Grierson of Screen Daily went further, saying on X: “It pains me to say that Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is a disaster.”

RELATED: ‘Megalopolis’ Imax Global Release Will Be Limited; Release Date Contingent On U.S. Distribution But Late September Eyed For IMAX In 20 US Cities; Coppola Live Event Planned – Cannes

The official logline for the film reads: “ Megalopolis  is a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.”

As we revealed earlier this week , the movie recently scored distribution deals in key European territories. Speculation is rife about what will happen to the film in the U.S. Interestingly, the international deals are for theatrical rights only and TV and VOD rights have been held back by Coppola’s team, potentially paving the way for a global streamer-type deal down the line. 

After tonight, what’s clear is the movie has a number of prominent critical supporters, perhaps more so than anticipated. Could Coppola make history by becoming the first director ever to win three Palme d’Ors? That doesn’t seem such a remote possibility right now.

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In Medicine, the Morally Unthinkable Too Easily Comes to Seem Normal

By Carl Elliott

Dr. Elliott teaches medical ethics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of the forthcoming book “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No,” from which this essay is adapted.

Here is the way I remember it: The year is 1985, and a few medical students are gathered around an operating table where an anesthetized woman has been prepared for surgery. The attending physician, a gynecologist, asks the group: “Has everyone felt a cervix? Here’s your chance.” One after another, we take turns inserting two gloved fingers into the unconscious woman’s vagina.

Had the woman consented to a pelvic exam? Did she understand that when the lights went dim she would be treated like a clinical practice dummy, her genitalia palpated by a succession of untrained hands? I don’t know. Like most medical students, I just did as I was told.

Last month the Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidance requiring written informed consent for pelvic exams and other intimate procedures performed under anesthesia. Much of the force behind the new requirement came from distressed medical students who saw these pelvic exams as wrong and summoned the courage to speak out.

Whether the guidance will actually change clinical practice I don’t know. Medical traditions are notoriously difficult to uproot, and academic medicine does not easily tolerate ethical dissent. I doubt the medical profession can be trusted to reform itself.

What is it that leads a rare individual to say no to practices that are deceptive, exploitative or harmful when everyone else thinks they are fine? For a long time I assumed that saying no was mainly an issue of moral courage. The relevant question was: If you are a witness to wrongdoing, will you be brave enough to speak out?

But then I started talking to insiders who had blown the whistle on abusive medical research. Soon I realized that I had overlooked the importance of moral perception. Before you decide to speak out about wrongdoing, you have to recognize it for what it is.

This is not as simple as it seems. Part of what makes medical training so unsettling is how often you are thrust into situations in which you don’t really know how to behave. Nothing in your life up to that point has prepared you to dissect a cadaver, perform a rectal exam or deliver a baby. Never before have you seen a psychotic patient involuntarily sedated and strapped to a bed or a brain-dead body wheeled out of a hospital room to have its organs harvested for transplantation. Your initial reaction is often a combination of revulsion, anxiety and self-consciousness.

To embark on a career in medicine is like moving to a foreign country where you do not understand the customs, rituals, manners or language. Your main concern on arrival is how to fit in and avoid causing offense. This is true even if the local customs seem backward or cruel. What’s more, this particular country has an authoritarian government and a rigid status hierarchy where dissent is not just discouraged but also punished. Living happily in this country requires convincing yourself that whatever discomfort you feel comes from your own ignorance and lack of experience. Over time, you learn how to assimilate. You may even come to laugh at how naïve you were when you first arrived.

A rare few people hang onto that discomfort and learn from it. When Michael Wilkins and William Bronston started working at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island as young doctors in the early 1970s, they found thousands of mentally disabled children condemned to the most horrific conditions imaginable: naked children rocking and moaning on concrete floors in puddles of their own urine; an overpowering stench of illness and filth; a research unit where children were deliberately infected with hepatitis A and B.

“It was truly an American concentration camp,” Dr. Bronston told me. Yet when he and Dr. Wilkins tried to enlist Willowbrook doctors and nurses to reform the institution, they were met with indifference or hostility. It seemed as if no one else on the medical staff could see what they saw. It was only when Dr. Wilkins went to a reporter and showed the world what was happening behind the Willowbrook walls that anything began to change.

When I asked Dr. Bronston how it was possible for doctors and nurses to work at Willowbrook without seeing it as a crime scene, he told me it began with the way the institution was structured and organized. “Medically secured, medically managed, doctor-validated,” he said. Medical professionals just accommodated themselves to the status quo. “You get with the program because that’s what you’re being hired to do,” he said.

One of the great mysteries of human behavior is how institutions create social worlds where unthinkable practices come to seem normal. This is as true of academic medical centers as it is of prisons and military units. When we are told about a horrific medical research scandal, we assume that we would see it just as the whistle-blower Peter Buxtun saw the Tuskegee syphilis study : an abuse so shocking that only a sociopath could fail to perceive it.

Yet it rarely happens this way. It took Mr. Buxtun seven years to convince others to see the abuses for what they were. It has taken other whistle-blowers even longer. Even when the outside world condemns a practice, medical institutions typically insist that the outsiders don’t really understand.

According to Irving Janis, a Yale psychologist who popularized the notion of groupthink, the forces of social conformity are especially powerful in organizations that are driven by a deep sense of moral purpose. If the aims of the organization are righteous, its members feel, it is wrong to put barriers in the way.

This observation helps explain why academic medicine not only defends researchers accused of wrongdoing but also sometimes rewards them. Many of the researchers responsible for the most notorious abuses in recent medical history — the Tuskegee syphilis study, the Willowbrook hepatitis studies, the Cincinnati radiation studies , the Holmesburg prison studies — were celebrated with professional accolades even after the abuses were first called out.

The culture of medicine is notoriously resistant to change. During the 1970s, it was thought that the solution to medical misconduct was formal education in ethics. Major academic medical centers began establishing bioethics centers and programs throughout the 1980s and ’90s, and today virtually every medical school in the country requires ethics training.

Yet it is debatable whether that training has had any effect. Many of the most egregious ethical abuses in recent decades have taken place in medical centers with prominent bioethics programs, such as the University of Pennsylvania , Duke University , Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University , as well as my own institution, the University of Minnesota .

One could be forgiven for concluding that the only way the culture of medicine will change is if changes are forced on it from the outside — by oversight bodies, legislators or litigators. For example, many states have responded to the controversy over pelvic exams by passing laws banning the practice unless the patient has explicitly given consent.

You may find it hard to understand how pelvic exams on unconscious women without their consent could seem like anything but a terrible invasion. Yet a central aim of medical training is to transform your sensibility. You are taught to steel yourself against your natural emotional reactions to death and disfigurement; to set aside your customary views about privacy and shame; to see the human body as a thing to be examined, tested and studied.

One danger of this transformation is that you will see your colleagues and superiors do horrible things and be afraid to speak up. But the more subtle danger is that you will no longer see what they are doing as horrible. You will just think: This is the way it is done.

Carl Elliott ( @FearLoathingBTX ) teaches medical ethics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of the forthcoming book “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No,” from which this essay is adapted.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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• Executive summary
• Outlook for key minerals

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IEA (2024), Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024 , IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/global-critical-minerals-outlook-2024, Licence: CC BY 4.0

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Global clean energy deployment and ev sales climbed to new heights in 2023, spurring strong growth in demand for critical minerals during a turbulent year for mineral markets.

Clean energy technologies had another record year, with annual additions of solar PV growing 85% and wind turbines growing 60%. Electric car sales neared 14 million in 2023, a 35% year-on-year increase, and more than six times higher than five years earlier in 2018. Almost half of global battery storage capacity, over 40 GW, was added in 2023 alone, a record year that saw additions doubling from 2022. Propelled by this expansion, the rate of demand growth for critical minerals remained robust in 2023, with lithium demand rising by 30% and demand for nickel, cobalt and graphite expanding by 8-10%. Clean energy applications were one of the primary contributors to this demand growth. Across all key minerals, the share of clean energy technologies has risen consistently.

However, the critical minerals market had a turbulent year in 2023 and the main story of the year was falling prices. Battery minerals saw particularly large declines with lithium spot prices plummeting by 75% and other key materials such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite seeing declines of 30-45%. In contrast, prices for copper stayed relatively resilient. Overall, a combination of demand and supply-side trends, alongside a correction of overly steep price rises in 2021-2022 contributed to the lower price environment, which is likely to continue in 2024. As a result, despite demand growth, the market size for energy transition minerals contracted by 10% to USD 325 billion in 2023.

Production growth has been accompanied by rising levels of geographical concentration, with the trends particularly pronounced for nickel and cobalt

In the case of refined materials, the share of the top three producing nations have all increased since 2020, except for lithium. This trend is most pronounced for nickel and cobalt, where the rise of Indonesia has significantly boosted the level of supply concentration. Between 2020 and 2023, Indonesia's share of mined nickel production increased from 34% to 52% and its share of refined nickel increased from 23% to 37%.

For mining, however, assessing production by ownership (based on the leading owner company’s headquarter location) shows a very different picture compared with the geographical mine location. Companies in the United States and Europe play a much greater role in the supply of all critical minerals than what the geographical location of mines may suggest. Much of this is from some of the largest multi-national mining majors such as Glencore and Rio Tinto. Both nickel and cobalt also show stark differences between the geographical location of mines compared with the ownership. Although Indonesia is the leading location of nickel mining, Indonesian companies lead hold less than 10% of production. Chinese companies are the major nickel mine owners, accounting for around 40% of production. European companies also have a sizeable share with over 20% of supply, predominantly due to operations in Indonesia owned by Eramet. For cobalt, the majority of mines are located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), whereas European companies such as Glencore and Chinese companies such as CMOC own a third each of the supply. Notably, DRC-owned companies account for less than 5% of production.

Reduced material prices and increased manufacturing capacity underpinned major cost reductions for clean energy technologies, with solar PV and batteries reaching record lows

While the low-price environment in the minerals’ market may foster additional deployment of clean energy technologies in the medium term, it currently presents challenges for producers’ financial performance. Industry revenues declined by 10% in 2023 while operating profits plummeted by 34%. Free cash flow also decreased by over 40%, constraining the industry's ability to allocate significant capital for future growth.

Capital expenditure on nonferrous metal production by 25 major mining companies, 2011-2023

Investment in critical mineral mining grew by 10% in 2023, a smaller increase than seen in 2022, as price declines placed pressure on producers’ financial capacity.

We have assessed the combined investment levels of 25 major mining companies with substantial involvement in developing minerals essential for the energy transition. These companies encompass diversified mining majors and specialised developers focused on specific energy transition minerals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and lithium. The assessment suggests that investment in critical minerals mining grew by 10% in 2023 (6% when adjusted for inflation), a smaller increase compared with the 30% growth in 2022. While investment spending by diversified majors increased by 15%, investment by lithium specialists saw a sharp rise by 60%, despite headwinds from weak prices.

Exploration spending grew by 15% in 2023, with Canada and Australia registering the largest increases, followed closely by Africa. Spending for lithium exhibited an impressive 80% increase despite challenging market conditions, followed by platinum and nickel.

Notable critical mineral deals in 2023 included USD 50 million series A investment by Canada-based Summit Nanotech to scale its more sustainable lithium extraction technology. In the United States, Kobold Metals raised USD 195 million in growth equity to expand cobalt extraction, Energy Exploration Technologies raised USD 50 million for direct lithium extraction from GM Ventures, and Atlas Materials raised USD 27 million in seed money to develop nickel extraction technologies.

Producing countries intensify efforts to secure economic benefits; consumer nations enact significant laws and regulations to ensure an adequate and responsible supply

While some producing countries already have high-level critical minerals strategies, such as Australia and Canada, more critical minerals strategies are now under development, particularly by new market entrants. The African Minerals Development Centre (ADMC) is developing an African Green Minerals Strategy which will aim to guide African countries as they consider how to exploit their raw materials. Individual countries are also in the process of developing strategies, such as Zambia, which is intending to release a critical minerals strategy in 2024. Some mineral-producing jurisdictions have created public strategic minerals investment funds. In February 2024, Brazil announced a USD 200 million fund to support both exploration and improvements in ESG practices. In October 2023, Australia expanded its Critical Minerals Facility with a USD 1.3 billion investment, financing extraction and processing projects. Canada’s CAD 1.5 billion (Canadian dollars 1 ) Strategic Innovation Fund, as part of the CAD 2.8 billion Critical Minerals Strategy, aims to prioritise innovative critical minerals manufacturing, processing and recycling projects.

Selected environmental, social and governance indicators for critical mineral developments by areas of attention, 2019-2022

Selected environmental, social and governance indicators for critical mineral developments by positive trends, 2019-2022.

In Latin America, both Mexico and Chile enacted policies to develop their domestic lithium mining industries. Mexico followed its 2022 Mining Reform with legislative amendments in 2023 that streamlined the mining permitting process and strengthened environmental and social protections. Chile also followed its 2023 National Lithium Strategy with an update to its Mining Royalty Law in 2023. The law established a mining royalty for the exploitation of copper and lithium to distribute economic benefits across the country, along with a legal body to administer it.

The Inflation Reduction Act of the United States provides funding to various government agencies to hire new personnel and develop tools and guidance to strengthen and accelerate environmental reviews. The proposed Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) of the European Union would allow certain projects to be designated as “strategic” that would have a streamlined permitting process. The act lays out criteria for a project to be designated as “strategic,” including whether the project would be implemented sustainably and responsibly. Besides permitting processes, the CRMA would also create a monitoring mechanism to mitigate the risk of supply chain bottlenecks.

Consumer countries have developed laws and regulations targeting sufficient supplies of responsible critical minerals. This has been particularly true in countries with large downstream manufacturing industries, which rely on a supply of these minerals.

Japan announced a policy on initiatives for ensuring stable supply of critical minerals in 2023, which aims to secure supplies for its battery manufacturing goals and provides subsidies for exploration, feasibility studies, mine development, smelting and research and development to develop supplies. Korea announced a list of 33 critical minerals and 10 strategic critical minerals, of which the latter will be prioritised to stabilise the supply chain of high-tech industries such as semi-conductors and secondary batteries.

Some countries also make financing support available for overseas projects through direct equity investments or sovereign wealth funds, such as in Japan, Saudi Arabia and China. The United Kingdom also pledged USD 1 million to identify bankable projects in processing and midstream value addition in 14 African countries.

Strategic plans have incorporated measures aimed at boosting rates of battery recycling, and 2023 saw a notable uptick in policies aimed at increasing the recycling of clean energy technologies to secure critical minerals from both consumer and producer countries. The European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act will require member states to identify, adopt and implement measures to improve the collection and recycling of critical mineral-rich waste, as well as investigate the potential for recovery of critical raw materials from extractive waste in active and historic mining sites. Specific measures to increase recycling have come in the form of investment into research and development and waste collection, such as the United States’ USD 192 million of funding for increasing recycling rates and research and development into battery recycling technologies from consumer products. 

Current company reporting does not allow for an industry-wide assessment of progress towards sustainable and responsible supply, but ESG performance is slowly becoming clearer

Progress has been observed for several ESG indicators. From 2019 to 2022, reported injury rates decreased by nearly 30%, investments in communities surged from USD 0.3 billion to USD 1 billion, and the average share of female workers went from just over 15% to 20%.

On the other hand, there are many areas where progress has been limited and some even show negative trends. The amount of waste generated per unit of mineral produced increased by over 20% from 2019 to 2022, potentially due to the development of lower-grade resources. Reported water consumption increased by around 25% during this period even in the face of high supply risks related to droughts for copper and other minerals. Similarly, indicators related to land rehabilitation, effluent discharge and GHG emissions did not exhibit visible improvements despite growing ESG commitments.

Voluntary sustainability standards can help actors improve performance and earn ESG credentials. These include the ICMM‘s Mining Principles and performance expectations, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance‘s Standard for Responsible Mining, Canada’s Towards Sustainable Mining, the Responsible Minerals Initiative and the Copper Mark’s Risk Readiness Assessment Criteria Guide. Material traceability services are also on the rise. This involves working with suppliers to track sources and related impacts up to the point of incorporation into an end product. It can allow an assessment of risks and ESG performance along the supply chain, contributing to increased mineral security.

As of 16 May 2024, USD 1= CAD 1.36.

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• USTR to modify China tariffs under Section 301 following four-year review

President Biden is directing the USTR to add or increase tariffs for certain products.

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The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) today released the four-year review of actions taken in the Section 301 investigation of China’s acts, policies, and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. Read the USTR report (193 pages)

A related USTR release explains that the USTR recommended that products from China currently subject to Section 301 tariffs should remain. Additionally, in light of the increased burden on U.S. commerce, President Biden is directing the USTR to add or increase tariffs for certain products.

The report also makes recommendations for:

• Establishing an exclusion process targeting machinery used in domestic manufacturing, including proposals for 19 exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment;
• Allocating additional funds to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for greater enforcement of Section 301 actions
•  Greater collaboration and cooperation between private companies and government authorities to combat state-sponsored technology theft
• Continuing to assess approaches to support diversification of supply chains to enhance our own supply chain resilience

President Biden is also directing the USTR to establish an exclusion process for machinery used in domestic manufacturing and to prioritize exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment.

The White House issued a fact sheet identifying the following tariff rate increases:

• From 0–7.5% to 25% in 2024 on certain steel and aluminum products under Section 301
• From 25% to 50% by 2025 on semiconductors
• From 25% to 100% in 2024 on electric vehicles under Section 301
• From 7.5%% to 25% in 2024 on lithium-ion EV batteries, from 7.5% to 25% in 2026 on lithium-ion non-EV batteries, and from 7.5% to 25% in 2024 on battery parts
• From zero to 25% in 2026 on natural graphite and permanent magnets, from zero to 25% in 2024 for certain other critical minerals
• From 25% to 50% in 2024 on solar cells (whether or not assembled into modules)—read a related White House fact sheet (May 16, 2024) on solar manufacturing
• From 0% to 25% in 2024 on ship-to-shore cranes
• From 0% to 50% in 2024 on syringes and needles; from 0–7.5% to 25% in 2024 for certain personal protective equipment (PPE), including certain respirators and face masks; and from 7.5% to 25% in 2026 on rubber medical and surgical gloves
• The USTR in May 2022 commenced the statutory four-year review process by notifying representatives of domestic industries that benefit from the tariff actions of the possible termination of those actions and of the opportunity for the representatives to request continuation.  
• The USTR in September 2022 announced that because requests for continuation were received, the tariff actions had not terminated and USTR would conduct a review of the tariff actions. 
• The USTR opened a docket on November 15, 2022, for interested persons to submit comments with respect to a number of considerations concerning the review. The USTR received nearly 1,500 comments.

For more information, contact a professional with KPMG Trade & Customs services:

The KPMG name and logo are trademarks used under license by the independent member firms of the KPMG global organization. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee and does not provide services to clients. No member firm has any authority to obligate or bind KPMG International or any other member firm vis-à-vis third parties, nor does KPMG International have any such authority to obligate or bind any member firm. The information contained herein is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavor to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act on such information without appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation. For more information, contact KPMG's Federal Tax Legislative and Regulatory Services Group at: + 1 202 533 3712, 1801 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20006.

Critical minerals demand has doubled in the past five years – here are some solutions to the supply crunch

Critical minerals play vital roles in green technologies. Image:  Unsplash/Markus Spiske

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.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Energy Transition is affecting economies, industries and global issues

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Stay up to date:, energy transition.

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This article was first published in August 2023 and updated in May 2024.

• Critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and nickel are vital building blocks for many green technologies.
• More investment in critical minerals will boost the chance of meeting global climate targets, the International Energy Agency says.
• But a secure, abundant and affordable supply of critical minerals is needed to ensure a smooth energy transition, according to the World Economic Forum.

Investing in critical minerals will boost our chances of meeting global climate goals.

That’s the view of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its first report on the outlook for critical minerals , in which every scenario forecasts a rapid increase in demand.

Critical minerals play vital roles in green technologies – for example in the construction of wind turbines, electric vehicles and solar panels. Demand for these technologies is rising around the world, with global battery demand one of the key factors in this growth.

Lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite are crucial to battery performance, longevity and energy density, according to the IEA.

Ensuring a robust supply will underpin the world’s climate goals, and help reach green targets. In fact, without them, our main strategies for decarbonization of our energy systems will likely flounder. But with a global switch from fossil fuels to critical minerals, political and environmental dangers must be carefully managed, warns a new World Economic Forum white paper, Energy Transition and Geopolitics: Are Critical Minerals the New Oil? .

Ensuring an effective energy transition

As the Forum pointed out in its Fostering Effective Energy Transition report for 2023, the energy transition will need a secure, abundant and affordable supply of critical minerals. Ensuring this will also help build resilience into the transition, it said.

The IEA report noted a marked increase in spending. Investment in critical mineral development rose 30% in 2022, after a 20% increase in 2021. Among the different minerals, lithium saw the sharpest increase in investment, a jump of 50%, followed by copper and nickel.

The Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2023 report showed that after a decade of progress, the global energy transition has plateaued amid the global energy crisis and geopolitical volatilities.

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Energy and Materials is driving the transition to a “fit for 2050” energy system. It is a cross-industry platform building new coalitions and delivering insights required for a sustainable, secure and just energy future.

Learn more about our impact:

• Clean energy in emerging economies: We are advancing country-specific renewable energy finance solutions for four of the biggest emerging and developing economies : India, Brazil, Nigeria and Indonesia. In the latter, a new solar and battery initiative is bringing 15MW of clean energy to the East Sumba region – enough to power 4,000 homes and avoid 5.5KtCO₂ yearly emissions.
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Even so, more needs to be done to make sure we are fit for the future.

“If all planned critical mineral projects are realized, supply in 2030 could be enough to support announced climate pledges,” the report said. “But project delays and other issues could lead to supply constraints.”

And more projects are needed to keep the goal of 1.5°C of warming in reach, it said.

The IEA – which has also launched a new online data tool to explore the topic – hosted the first-ever international summit on critical minerals and their role in clean energy transitions in September 2023.

Securing the critical minerals supply chain

The IEA report highlighted how many governments are focused on the issue, with its policy tracker identifying around 200 policies and regulations across the globe that aim to ensure adequate and sustainable mineral supplies.

These include the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act, the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act, Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategy and Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy.

Some of these include restrictions on imports and exports, it said, with global export restrictions on critical raw materials seeing a fivefold increase since 2009.

Spending on critical minerals among private companies has also increased, with firms specializing in lithium development recording a 50% increase in spending.

Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to hold about 30% of critical mineral reserves, which has the potential to transform the region , according to the International Monetary Fund.

“We are encouraged by the rapid growth in the market for critical minerals, which are crucial for the world to achieve its energy and climate goals,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. “Even so, major challenges remain. Much more needs to be done to ensure supply chains for critical minerals are secure and sustainable.”

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai today released the following statement concerning the statutory review of the tariff actions in the Section 301 investigation of China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation: “After thorough review of the statutory report on Section 301 tariffs, and having considered my advice, President Biden is directing me to take further action to encourage the elimination of the People’s Republic of China’s unfair technology transfer-related policies and practices that continue to burden U.S. commerce and harm American workers and businesses,” said Ambassador Katherine Tai.    “As the President recognizes in his memorandum, while the tariffs have been effective in encouraging the PRC to take some steps to address the issues identified in the Section 301 investigation, further action is required.   “In light of President Biden’s direction, I will be proposing modifications to the China tariffs under Section 301 to confront the PRC’s unfair policies and practices. From the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, I have been committed to using every lever of my office to promote American jobs and investments, and these recommendations are no different. Today, we serve our statutory goal to stop the PRC’s harmful technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices, including its cyber intrusions and cyber theft. I take this charge seriously, and I will continue to work with my partners across sectors to ensure any action complements the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to expand opportunities for American workers and manufacturers.”   The Section 301 statute directs that the four-year review includes a consideration of: the effectiveness of the tariff actions in achieving the objective of the investigation; other actions that could be taken; and the overall effects of the tariff actions on the U.S. economy. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) Report  addresses the statutory elements of the review, suggests modifications to strengthen the actions, and makes certain recommendations.   To encourage further elimination of the PRC’s technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices, Ambassador Tai has recommended that products from the PRC currently subject to Section 301 tariffs should remain. Additionally, in light of the increased burden on U.S. commerce, President Biden is directing Ambassador Tai to take action to add or increase tariffs for certain products. As the Report details, Ambassador Tai will propose the following modifications in strategic sectors:

The Report also makes recommendations for: (1) establishing an exclusion process targeting machinery used in domestic manufacturing, including proposals for 19 exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment; (2) allocating additional funds to United States Customs and Border Protection for greater enforcement of Section 301 actions; (3) greater collaboration and cooperation between private companies and government authorities to combat state-sponsored technology theft; and (4) continuing to assess approaches to support diversification of supply chains to enhance our own supply chain resilience.   President Biden is also directing Ambassador Tai to establish an exclusion process for machinery used in domestic manufacturing and to prioritize, in particular, exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment.   Next week, USTR will issue a Federal Register notice announcing procedures for interested persons to comment on the proposed modifications and information concerning an exclusion process for machinery used in domestic manufacturing.    Background     In May 2022, USTR commenced the statutory four-year review process by notifying representatives of domestic industries that benefit from the tariff actions of the possible termination of those actions and of the opportunity for the representatives to request continuation.  In September 2022, USTR announced that because requests for continuation were received, the tariff actions had not terminated and USTR would conduct a review of the tariff actions.  USTR opened a docket on November 15, 2022, for interested persons to submit comments with respect to a number of considerations concerning the review.  USTR received nearly 1,500 comments.   As part of the statutory review process, throughout 2023 and early 2024, USTR and the Section 301 Committee (a staff-level body of the USTR-led, interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee) held numerous meetings with agency experts concerning the review and the comments received.    Specifically, the Report concludes: 

• The Section 301 actions have been effective in encouraging the PRC to take steps toward eliminating some of its technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices and have reduced some of the exposure of U.S. persons and businesses to these technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices.  
• The PRC has not eliminated many of its technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices, which continue to impose a burden or restriction on U.S. commerce. Instead of pursuing fundamental reform, the PRC has persisted, and in some cases become aggressive, including through cyber intrusions and cybertheft, in its attempts to acquire and absorb foreign technology, which further burden or restrict U.S. commerce.  
• Economic analyses generally find that tariffs (particularly PRC retaliation) have had small negative effects on U.S. aggregate economic welfare, positive impacts on U.S. production in the 10 sectors most directly affected by the tariffs, and minimal impacts on economy-wide prices and employment.  
• Negative effects on the United States are particularly associated with retaliatory tariffs that the PRC has applied to U.S. exports.  
• Critically, these analyses examine the tariff actions as isolated policy measures without reference to the policy landscape that may be reinforcing or undermining the effects of the tariffs.  
• Economic analyses, including the principal U.S. Government analysis published by the U.S. International Trade Commission, generally find that the Section 301 tariffs have contributed to reducing U.S. imports of goods from the PRC and increasing imports from alternate sources, including U.S. allies and partners, thereby potentially supporting U.S. supply chain diversification and resilience. 

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