Critical minerals and copper are becoming increasingly important due to the energy and transportation transition.
Solar cells and wind turbines are inconceivable without raw materials such as copper or critical minerals such as rare earths. Therefore, the International Energy Agency (IEA) will initiate a program to secure supplies, as its chairman, Fatih Birol, announced in an interview with Reuters. He did not give details on the program’s design, but Birol referred to the mechanism for maintaining the oil supply, according to the agency. IEA member states such as Germany must maintain a 90-day supply within this framework. In the case of Germany, this amounts to around 24 million tons of crude oil.
The IEA was founded in 1974 after the oil crisis and intended to develop measures to avert similar shortages. Today, it advises the 31 member states on energy policy issues, with critical raw materials increasingly coming into focus due to efforts to achieve climate neutrality. In July last year, the agency presented its first report on this topic (we reported).
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