The transition away from fossil fuels could be held back by shortages of critical minerals needed to build solar panels, nuclear power stations, electric cars and wind turbines, researchers have found.
Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology found that if the world attempted to build enough clean technology to limit climate change to 2C above pre-industrial temperatures, it would exhaust known reserves of several minerals within decades.
As China uses its dominance of critical minerals as a geopolitical tool—limiting exports and imposing tariffs—and as demand for these elements in defence and the high-tech sectors grow, there’s a new sense of urgency in the West to break China’s hold.
Ottawa recently joined other G7 leaders in launching a critical minerals action plan, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has noted the important role such minerals play in expanding the country’s defence plan.
But while the United States is implementing plans to quickly unleash its rare earth mineral development, Canada—despite having an estimated four times more rare earth elements —faces different limitations.
Beijing’s tightened controls are a sign of the leverage it has over the U.S. military supply chain
China is limiting the flow of critical minerals to Western defense manufacturers, delaying production and forcing companies to scour the world for stockpiles of the minerals needed to make everything from bullets to jet fighters.
Earlier this year, as U.S.-China trade tensions soared, Beijing tightened the controls it places on the export of rare earths. While Beijing allowed them to start flowing after the Trump administration agreed in June to a series of trade concessions, China has maintained a lock on critical minerals for defense purposes. China supplies around 90% of the world’s rare earths and dominates the production of many other critical minerals.
As a result, one drone-parts manufacturer that supplies the U.S. military was forced to delay orders by up to two months while it searched for a non-Chinese source of magnets, which are assembled from rare earths.
