With the European Green Deal, the EU has committed to reducing emissions by 55% by 2030, and to become climate neutral by 2050.
Transport makes up to one quarter of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions. So its emissions need to be reduced in Europe by 90% by 2050. And because most citizens live and work in cities, our cities and urban mobility systems will have a key role in this challenging transition.
We have seen quick progress: roughly every 10th passenger car sold in the EU is already zero-emission.
And there are now more zero-emission vans and hydrogen long-haul trucks on our roads.
The faster the growth of zero-emission vehicles, the faster the deployment of necessary infrastructure in cities and highways. We have recently agreed to a new Regulation setting mandatory targets to give certainty about the deployment of this critical infrastructure. It will soon be as easy to drive across Europe with an electric or hydrogen vehicle as it is with a diesel or petrol one.
For cities, this means planning and facilitating the rollout of infrastructure on their territory. And ensuring that it meets specific local needs in terms of personal mobility, public transport, last-mile and urban delivery.
Cities across our two continents should explore opportunities to learn from each other and exchanges good practices.
Electric mobility is not only a transport-related challenge but also an industrial one. Supply chains need to adapt and the demand of the necessary inputs, notably critical raw materials, is exploding.
To make transport carbon neutral, our industries need to have access to raw materials such as lithium or nickel, which are essential for battery production.
The green economy will be more raw-material intensive than the one based on fossil-fuels.
Demand for critical raw materials is therefore projected to increase drastically. For instance, EU demand for lithium batteries powering our electric vehicles and energy storage is set to increase 12 times by 2030, and 21 times by 2050.
We need to help the upstream industry producing these metals to seize every opportunity to ramp up production.
This means, first and foremost, diversifying the sourcing of these minerals, which is currently concentrated in a few - or sometimes even a single - source.
The EU heavily relies on imports of these refined critical raw materials, often from quasi-monopolistic third country suppliers. For instance, 100% of the rare earths used for permanent magnets globally are refined in China.
No single country can be self-sufficient in supplying raw materials needed for the green transition. This is why we need strong international cooperation to boost global production and diversify the supply of raw materials in a sustainable way.
This global diversification is an opportunity for resource-rich Latin American countries. Your continent has a vital role to play as we seek to mitigate supply chain risks related to such strategic dependencies. This need was highlighted by the shortages in the aftermath of the Covid-19 and the energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Four months ago, the Commission proposed a comprehensive set of actions to ensure EU's access to a secure, diversified, sustainable supply of critical raw materials.
We have pledged to strengthen our global engagement: develop and diversify investment, production, and trade with reliable partners, while working to reduce our dependence on highly concentrated supplies.
We will pursue these objectives in close cooperation with third countries to ensure mutually beneficial partnerships. We want to promote their own economic development in a sustainable manner while creating secure and stronger value chains for the EU.
The EU is now focusing on some key actions:
- We will step up trade-related work such as strengthening the World Trade Organization and expanding our network of Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreements and Free Trade Agreements. In this regard, agreements with Chile, Mexico and Mercosur are very important to cement trade and investment in the area of raw materials.
- The Global Gateway initiative will assist partner countries in developing their own extraction and processing capacities. This includes skills development and concrete projects in hard infrastructure and boosting and leveraging private sector investment projects all along the critical raw materials value chain.
- We will further develop strategic partnerships. We will work with reliable partners to promote their own economic development in a sustainable manner through value chain creation, while also promoting secure, diversified value chains for the EU. We have already signed a partnership with Argentina and are about to sign a second one in Latin America with Chile.
The EU is not alone in facing these challenges. Moving towards a net-zero and digital economy is a shared objective of Latin America and the global community, and a secure and sustainable supply of CRMs is emerging as shared challenge.
This is why the EU is proposing to establish a Critical Raw Materials Club bringing together consuming countries and resource-rich countries. The Club will aim at creating a win-win partnership, putting together the basis for increased, sustainable investment and so enabling a secure supply of critical raw materials for the green and digital transition.
The Club's objectives will be to support resource-rich countries' plans to use their assets to move up in the value chain, while ensuring that these joint efforts are undertaken in a sustainable way, with high environmental and social standards.
We envisage that the Club would focus on four goals:
- Sharing knowledge and cooperation to prevent crises and to address emergencies.
- Boosting sustainable production and local processing capacities.
- Ensuring reliable trade and investment in raw material.
- Ensuring that increasing the supply of raw materials is not at the expense of communities and the environment.
The Club would meet regularly with representatives of business and civil society: we will not succeed without industry playing a full role in making available a diversified, sustainable supply of critical raw materials.
We announced our intention to work with interested Latin America and the Caribbean partners on establishing the global Critical Raw Materials Club in last month's Communication on "A New Agenda for Relations between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean". This would build on the partnerships being developed with individual LAC countries.
We look forward to continuing working with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to make this transformation of our net zero supply chains a reality. This is essential for our common fight against global warming,
Thank you, I am looking forward to exchanges among panellists on this essential topic.
