Diversification of supply chains required to expand renewable energies.
The new annually issued Energy Progress Report has been published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO). In the report, the five organizations examined the extent to which the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (“SDG 7”) is being met. Among other things, this means how the share of renewable energies in total energy consumption has developed.
Supply bottlenecks challenge the expansion of green energy
The report emphasizes that the growth of renewable energies is currently not progressing fast enough and must be increased significantly in the coming decades to achieve global energy and climate targets. In 2020, the renewable energy share in total energy consumption was 19.1 percent – an increase of 3.1 percent compared to 2010. To increase this further, it will be necessary to generate significantly more energy from solar and wind power plants, for which critical raw materials such as rare earths are needed. Global dependency on China is particularly high here and represents a potential obstacle: China’s share of all manufacturing stages of solar modules is over 80 percent, and 60 percent of wind turbine manufacturing.
Securing supply chains through new partnerships
To become more independent of individual raw material players in the sourcing of minerals and the production of materials needed for the global expansion of renewable energies, the authors, therefore, advocate for diversifying supply chains. It is significant to forge new strategic partnerships and create greener and more durable products, they say.
Efforts to expand supply chains are nothing new, however: Numerous new raw materials agreements have been concluded around the world in recent months. For example, Canada and South Korea are planning a new partnership on critical minerals, and France has joined forces with Mongolia to supply raw materials. This is intended to make the countries less dependent on the market leader China.
The complete study “The Energy Progress Report” on these and other energy topics can be found here.
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