{"id":196677,"date":"2022-07-21T18:34:22","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=196677"},"modified":"2022-07-21T18:37:38","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:07:38","slug":"the-west-digs-for-the-next-energy-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-west-digs-for-the-next-energy-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"The West digs for the next energy battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cThe West digs for the next energy battle\u201d published in the Live Mint on 20th<\/sup> July 2022.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 3 Infrastructure; Energy<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: Green Energy Transition<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: In the recent summit meetings of the US-EU in Brussels, the EU Council, the G-7, and NATO, it was noticed that energy security<\/strong> figured prominently.<\/p>\n

Reasons for the prominence of energy security theme in these meeting<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In recent months, Russia\u2019s <\/strong>war on Ukraine and the Western economic sanction<\/strong> imposed on Russia, have led to a new era of the \u201cweaponization of energy\u201d openly.<\/p>\n

At the G-7 Summit, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report on the security of the supply of raw materials<\/strong> was highlighted. The report cautioned that the green energy transition<\/strong> will require a quantum leap in the use of critical minerals<\/strong>, many of which are more geoeconomically<\/strong> concentrated than oil. For example, lithium, bismuth, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth production is concentrated in just three countries.<\/p>\n

The transition to Electric Vehicles Technology would require batteries for storage. This could increase lithium demand<\/strong> by 40 times, and cobalt by 30 times <\/strong>by 2040.<\/p>\n

Issues with Chinese Dominance<\/strong><\/h5>\n

At present, China threatens to use its dominant position in the green energy sector as a weapon.<\/p>\n

China is endowed with critical minerals<\/strong>: China controls 50% of global rare earth mining.<\/p>\n

Since the 2000s, China has been investing in the solar photovoltaic (PV) industries<\/strong>. The PV sector was subsidized as a strategic sector. In 2022, the International Energy Agency warned that 80% of all the world\u2019s manufacturing stages related to PV, from polysilicon to ingots, wafers, cells, and modules are in China. It has focused on the vertical integration of the industry.<\/p>\n

China has invested heavily in all the supply chain links for solar and wind energy. Further, it has plans to do the same for all green energies.\u00a0 \u00a0For Example:<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Green Finance Committee<\/strong> has reported that China is expected to invest $75 trillion by 2050 in carbon neutrality financing<\/strong>. The investment will range from zero-carbon electricity, hydrogen fuel cells, and carbon capture to many more. The investment will be equivalent to over 10% of China\u2019s gross domestic product every year.<\/p>\n

The Western Response <\/strong><\/h5>\n

The US\/NATO wants to decouple with China in many fields of normal economic and sci-tech cooperation.<\/p>\n

At the US-EU Energy Council<\/strong>, it was stated that reliable, affordable, <\/strong>and secure energy<\/strong> can only come from a decarbonized energy mix <\/strong>based largely on renewables\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US and EU announced to have \u201claid the foundations for the rules-based international order\u201d<\/strong>. Further, it was stated that \u201csome of the rules need an update\u201d <\/strong>with high priority given to \u201cprotect the planet\u201d and \u201cfoster green growth\u201d.<\/p>\n

About the Mineral Security Partnership<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It is a venture<\/strong> which was announced during a major mining conference<\/strong> in Toronto. It is aimed to bolster critical mineral supply chains<\/strong>. It has also been described as \u201cmetallic NATO\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Members<\/strong>: There are eleven partner countries – US, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Korea, Australia along with the European Commission. Some of the countries are geologically well endowed<\/strong>, some are players in mining<\/strong>, some have strengths in refining, processing and trading of minerals, and some lead the R&D on metallurgy for alternatives.<\/p>\n

The Mineral Security Partnership has the potential to influence future investments, technological development, and trade flows in energy raw materials.<\/p>\n

About NATO\u2019s new Strategic Concept<\/strong> at Madrid<\/strong><\/h5>\n

NATO aims at \u201cmitigating strategic vulnerabilities<\/strong>\u201d to counter China\u2019s attempts \u201cto control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, strategic materials and supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

NATO and its invitees to the meeting i.e., Japan, Korea, and Australia are poised to give a new Asian focus to alliance planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on an article \u201cThe West digs for the next energy battle\u201d published in the Live Mint on 20th July 2022. Syllabus: GS 3 Infrastructure; Energy Relevance: Green Energy Transition News: In the recent summit meetings of the US-EU in Brussels, the EU Council, the G-7, and NATO, it was noticed… Continue reading The West digs for the next energy battle<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10501],"class_list":["post-196677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700810508,"cached_date":1704917521},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}