Future demand for commodities may be driven by environmental impact, with precious metal platinum seen benefiting but coal potentially a loser, Citigroup said.
Future demand for some commodities could rise due to recycling and pollution abatement regulations, but could drop for others due to health and safety concerns or pollution risk.
As a result, demand for platinum, used to clean exhaust fumes, could increase, but regulations could kill coal demand.
"On platinum, the major demand driver comes from autocatalysts, which is directly environmentally related," mining analyst Heath Jansen at Citigroup told Reuters.
Jansen was co-author of a Citigroup analysts' report on the subject earlier this year.
Automotive catalysts accounted for 50 percent of Platinum Group Metal (PGM) demand in 2005. UK-based refiners Johnson Matthey said in a report that demand for platinum - which can be used in both diesel and gasoline systems - had risen 100 percent since 2000.
"The car industry is the most obvious, because it is a big driver for the PGMs and the environmental changes that keep driving demand," Jansen said.
Platinum prices have more than trebled over the last six years as global demand has outstripped supply.
"There will undoubtedly be stronger demand from the auto industry, with growth expected in all regions except Europe," the Johnson Matthey report said.
Total demand could flatten in 2006, as the outlook for another major consumer, the jewellery sector, is less certain.
Stringent atmospheric pollution controls would hit demand for energy producing coal in the future, Jansen said.
Wind energy and other renewable energy sources have been boosted over the past 10-15 years amid growing concerns that traditional energy sources - coal, natural gas and oil - produce carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas widely blamed for global warming.
The European Union aims for renewable energy to account for 12 percent of total energy use in 2012, up from 6-7 percent now. Also, concerns over greenhouse gas emissions have revived interest in nuclear power and could improve demand for uranium.
"Uranium looks better than coal, but it still doesn't look to be a long-term sustainable solution for power," Jansen said.
Nuclear power could serve as a carbon-free alternative to coal, but the permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste remains a challenge, as do safety concerns.
Jansen noted that some companies were adapting to the new requirements.
Thermal coal producer Xstrata is slowly diversifying its operations, recently acquiring the Peruvian Tintaya Copper Mine and Falconbridge.
"Xstrata is moving away from being an energy coal producer to be more of a base metals producer, which is an outcome of its recent acquisitions," Jansen said.
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