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The world is focused on achieving net-zero carbon emissions to tackle the ongoing climate crisis. While financing solutions are a primary focus of events like COP 29, money alone isn't enough; vital resources like critical minerals and metals are also essential for the path towards net zero. Technologies underpinning this transition, such as wind turbines, solar panels, and electric battery-powered vehicles, rely heavily on these critical metals. Defined by high demand, essential societal use, and risk of supply chain disruptions, the list of these critical materials has grown with green energy investment. Electric vehicles, for instance, use a wider variety and greater mass of metals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements like neodymium, and copper, compared to conventional cars. Societal demand for these materials is expected to increase substantially as the global shift to net zero accelerates. This rising demand places geologists at the forefront of the move to renewable energy, tasking them with finding new economic mineral reserves. However, this search is challenging because many valuable deposits are rare and difficult to find. Furthermore, there's a significant mismatch between where these critical minerals are currently mined and where the demand is highest, particularly for rare earth elements, making them vulnerable to supply issues. For example, while the EU, USA, and China are leading consumers of rare earth elements, only China is projected to meet its domestic needs for metals like neodymium. To address these challenges and risks, there's an increasing focus on diversifying mining locations for resilience and implementing circular economy strategies, which involve recycling and re-using accumulated metal stocks in regions of high demand. Understanding and securing these critical mineral resources is just one vital way geoscientists are helping to understand and mitigate climate change and lead the way towards a net-zero future. P. Geo. Ricardo A Valls, M. Sc. and Geo Gadfly Valls Geoconsultant ORCID ID- https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5421-0914 Scopus Author ID: 7003369619/35335510700 ResearcherID: S-6604-2018 If you like this content, please "buy me a coffee" https://www.buymeacoffee.com/goldendroplets