On Friday, a report from the Foreign Affairs Committee, a bipartisan group of parliamentarians, emphasized that the UK’s heavy reliance on China for crucial minerals necessary for the production of everyday items like smartphones has left the country exposed and susceptible.
The report, titled “A rock and a hard place: building critical mineral resilience,” underscored the risks associated with the UK’s dependency on autocratic regimes, particularly China, for rare metals like lithium and cobalt.
The document concluded that the UK’s critical minerals supply chains are vulnerable due to this reliance on autocracies and the lack of action from successive UK governments. The study highlighted the strategic importance of critical minerals to the UK, describing them as “essential” for the nation’s economic security and for achieving climate change targets.
The report followed the government’s introduction of the UK’s inaugural critical minerals strategy last year, aimed at enhancing the security of vital commodities. The committee criticized the government for not evaluating the vulnerabilities and dependencies in the UK’s industrial supply chains before formulating the strategy.
The committee, chaired by lawmaker Alicia Kearns from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, has urged the government to release specific targets for priority sectors and present a more detailed implementation plan.
Kearns, a member of Sunak’s party, emphasized the essential role of critical minerals in various modern technologies, ranging from F35 fighter jets to phone batteries. She highlighted the significance of these minerals in everyday life, the transition to green technologies, and the national defense infrastructure.
Kearns also pointed out the imperative need for the UK to address the vulnerability arising from its reliance on a single state, particularly China, stating that if China were to disrupt the supply of these minerals, there would be significant consequences for all.
Beyond the UK, the European Union took steps last month to establish a strategy aimed at ensuring its own access to critical raw materials, reflecting a broader effort by Brussels to decrease its reliance on external sources, with a notable focus on reducing dependency on China. The European Union is particularly apprehensive about the potential of lagging behind in the shift to cleaner technologies that heavily rely on essential minerals.
China is widely acknowledged to have advanced considerably in this regard, benefitting from its access to raw materials, while the United States has committed substantial financial resources through subsidies to support the development of green technologies.
Critical raw materials, including the rare metal tungsten, play a crucial role in enabling the functionality of the electrical products widely used by consumers today.
