Europe and India are rapidly moving towards clean energy transitions, rapidly increasing the share of renewables in their respective energy mixes. This has raised concerns about their dependency on critical raw materials (CRMs) such as cobalt, nickel and graphite required for renewable energy technologies. The supply chains of these raw materials are mainly dominated by single exporting countries, such as China. Europe and India are not short of lithium reserves, for example, but there are barriers to lithium mining and any new mining activities will take time to commence, if at all.
This policy brief examines how the two parties are coming to terms with their reliance on China-dominated CRM-dependent value chains. Both recognise that de-risking, diversifying and/or decoupling cannot be achieved easily and quickly. The EU is concerned about being drawn into a broader regional conflict between the US and China, while India is embroiled in a cross-issue strategic partnership as it seeks to address the Chinese threat. It would make sense for the two blocs to reframe the debate on de-risking and instead work together to jointly invest in research and development of replacements for some CRMs, develop competitive supply chains for new materials, and collaborate on reusing and recycling existing materials.
Read the policy brief
