Burned by Russia, Germany seeks to lessen dependence on China & More News Here

Germany’s dependence on Chinese uncooked supplies is more and more attracting the federal government’s consideration because it continues, along with the EU, to work at full velocity on liberating itself from Russian financial dependence. EURACTIV Germany experiences.

In shut cooperation with the EU, Germany desires to break free from its one-sided dependence on China, the federal government has stated.

The nation’s financial system ministry is already exhausting at work as it’s now working on a brand new uncooked supplies technique and goals to broaden home extraction and diversify provide chains.

The new push for extra strategic autonomy “concerns Russia on the one hand, where we need to break away from unilateral dependence on cheap energy, and China on the other, with a view to raw materials dependence”, Franziska Brantner, the parliamentary state secretary on the financial system ministry, instructed EURACTIV.

In latest a long time, the EU has turn into more and more dependent on China for vital uncooked supplies, with virtually two in three assets it views as vital being extracted within the nation.

“For too long, we have simply operated according to the principle of buying where it is cheapest, and these are often raw materials that come from China,” stated Brantner.

Particularly worrying for the German authorities is the dependence within the first processing stage.

“Here, there are hardly any production sites independent of China. For many of the rare earths, this dependence is even almost 100%,” stated Brantner.

However, the push for extra strategic independence shouldn’t lead to protectionist tendencies as a result of “we need globalisation – but a fair and sustainable one,” she added.

Germany is thus additionally banking on a diversification of the availability chains. Instead of sustaining the unilateral dependence on international locations like China and Russia, the German authorities plans to broaden cooperation with different non-Western states additional and encourage German corporations to spend money on these third international locations.

Brantner is thus heading to South America in mid-June, the place she desires to promote stronger financial cooperation on renewable energies and uncooked supplies.

Growing wants

According to World Bank estimates, demand for vital uncooked supplies is predicted to improve quickly within the close to future and develop by about 500% by 2050.

“Due to the exponential growth in demand, there is a risk that these existing dependencies will deepen even further,” EIT Raw Materials CEO Bernd Schäfer instructed EURACTIV.

According to him, the EU should now step up its efforts to diversify provide chains and goal the extraction of those vital uncooked supplies throughout the bloc.

The European Commission has already taken some initiatives on this regard. This consists of elevated investments into the round financial system, which goals to cut back the demand for vital uncooked supplies whereas on the similar time recycling the uncooked supplies already processed in merchandise.

The precept is already enshrined in some EU laws. For instance, the Battery Regulation in its present type stipulates {that a} sure proportion of the burden of batteries have to be recycled for uncooked materials restoration.

An analogous strategy can be taken within the Ecodesign Directive, presently underneath revision. Rare earths, specifically, have a present recycling fee of lower than 4%, which is why the European Commission sees a whole lot of room for enchancment in uncooked materials restoration, notably on this space.

“It is also important to reduce the overall consumption of raw materials and to recycle more. There is still great potential here for many raw materials. We are committed to a European circular economy in this regard,” stated Brantner.

Raw Materials Act

However, the large bang on the problem of uncooked materials independence continues to be to come because the Commission is presently working on its personal proposal for strategic independence in vital uncooked supplies – the Raw Materials Act.

Although it’s not but recognized what form the brand new legislative proposal will take, it’s anticipated that lots of its provisions might be modelled after the Chips Act. The Chips Act addresses related issues regarding provide bottlenecks for semiconductors.

Among different issues, the Chips Act envisages greater than doubling the manufacturing capacities of semiconductors in Europe by 2030.

However, from Germany’s perspective, this strategy can’t merely be transferred to the Raw Materials Act.

“The Commission must not focus here solely on the increased extraction of raw materials in Europe,” Brantner confused. Rather, it must also focus on the diversification of provide chains and elevated funding in third international locations, she added.

“We need fair, competitive conditions, so if we apply high sustainability standards to the extraction of raw materials at home, then this must also apply to the imported raw materials. In addition, we need more tools for monitoring and tracking supply chains and incentives for diversification, efficiency and recycling,” Brantner additionally stated.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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