The EU does not have access to all the raw materials it will need to meet its climate goals, auditors have warned.
The European Union has set ever tougher targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions including by producing more renewable energy.
But solar panels and wind turbines need vital materials to be built and to function and the European Court of Auditors (ECA) says that the EU does not have enough.
In 2024, the EU passed a law – the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Act – designed to ensure Europe has a steady supply of 26 key minerals.
But the ECA is now warning that it is now working.
“Without critical raw materials, there will be no energy transition, no competitiveness, and no strategic autonomy. Unfortunately, we are now dangerously dependent on a handful of countries outside the EU for the supply of these materials”, says ECA auditor, Keit Pentus-Rosimannus.
Most of the vital minerals are concentrated in China, Turkey and Chile.
Securing the supply Europe needs can be achieved by diversifying imports as well as increasing domestic production and upping recycling.
The CRM Act only set non-binding targets for a small number of raw materials regarded as “strategically vital”.
“There is still a long way to go to meet the targets”, the ECA warns. “The EU will struggle to secure the supply of the strategic raw materials it needs by the end of the decade.”
Recycling rates are also way behind.
“The CRM Act also envisages that at least 25 percent of the EU’s strategic raw materials should originate from recycled sources by 2030.
But the outlook is not promising: as things stand, seven out of 26 materials needed for the energy transition have recycling rates between 1 percent and 5 percent, while 10 are not recycled at all”, says the ECA.
Since the law was passed two years ago, world trade has become more competitive, not only with China, but also the US. That makes accessing materials in sufficient quantities still harder.
The auditors hope that their warnings will act as a wake up call to the EU to push further in pursuing diversification.
The auditors point out that Mercosur countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are rich in many of the key materials. The trade deal so controversial in Ireland, could yet help with renewables.