Europe has been effective in driving sector trends necessary for the energy transition through strong investment, target setting and policy employment. Prime examples include the ‘Fit for 55’ deal in electric vehicles (EV), the Renewable Energy Directive and European Green Deal in renewable power. Such policies and strategies have instigated governments to set their own strategies to meet or exceed EU targets as a result.
Efforts to source and refine CRMs on European soil need to be a focus
Whilst these are arguably the most crucial sectors to tackle, Europe’s progress in these sectors is heavily reliant on the supply of critical raw materials (CRMs) which are largely sourced and refined abroad over geographically restricted areas. For example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo mines more than 70% of the world’s cobalt, and China is unchallenged in its dominance over rare earth element (REE) production – in addition to its worldwide dominance in processing for a whole
