Responding to the China challenge: Diversification and de-risking in new energy supply chains

As tensions between the West and China deepen, critical minerals and materials for strategic technologies, including for low-carbon energy, have become one of the battlegrounds. China's centrality to the supply of some of these critical minerals and materials has prompted Western governments to put in place countermeasures to ease their dependence on China. But as this issue of the Oxford Energy Forum explores, reducing China's role is more easily said than done. The authors in this issue unpack China's dominance throughout the value chains for solar cells, wind turbines, and lithium-ion batteries, looking at some of the policies and corporate strategies that have enabled this. They also assess the effectiveness and impact of government responses to China, especially in minerals and materials. The articles in this issue discuss how mineral producing countries (including Australia and Latin American countries) are looking to diversify their investors and off-takers and balance their economic and strategic relations with China and the West. Meanwhile, a number of articles also analyse consumer government's efforts to de-risk (such as Japan, the UK, Sweden and the US) and argue that while they have had some success in diversifying supply chains, de-risking remains an elusive objective. A better assessment and understanding of the risks is needed.