Energy transition: India remains highly dependent on imports of critical minerals, says report

It stresses that India needs a cautiously crafted import strategy to mitigate imaginable commercialized risks portion balancing planetary relationships to unafraid these indispensable minerals.

IEEFA’s study examines 5 captious minerals (and their compounds) – cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium and nickel – from the perspectives of import dependency, commercialized dynamics, home availability, and planetary terms fluctuations.

The findings amusement that India remains mostly import-dependent for these minerals and their compounds, with 100 per cent import reliance for minerals similar lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

“India should strive to de-risk its captious minerals sourcing by identifying caller planetary resources and expediting home production. A concerted effort to spouse with and foster bilateral relations with mineral-rich nations should beryllium a precedence for India,” said the report’s co-author Charith Konda, Energy Specialist, IEEFA.

“The state tin besides research concern opportunities successful resource-rich, affable nations, specified arsenic Australia and Chile, arsenic good arsenic African countries similar Ghana and South Africa,” helium added.

The study said India depends heavy connected China for synthetic graphite and earthy graphite and it should research practice initiatives with countries similar Mozambique, Madagascar, Brazil and Tanzania which are immoderate of the highest graphite producing countries.

“As portion of the Global South practice initiatives, these countries could beryllium favourable partners for India for graphite trading,” said the report’s co-author Kaira Rakheja, Energy Analyst, IEEFA.

India is besides highly import-dependent for copper cathodes and nickel sulphates from conscionable 2 countries – Japan and Belgium. The study suggests India could look astatine the US, the 5th largest shaper of copper successful the world, to diversify its suppliers and heighten proviso security.

For minerals similar lithium oxide and nickel oxide, the dependency is debased connected 1 country, but wide imports mostly travel from Russia and China, some countries with imaginable commercialized risks.

“Developing home lithium refining capableness volition assistance India integrate with the planetary lithium proviso chain,” said Rakheja.

The study besides notes the important efforts that the Indian authorities is making to amended home accumulation of captious minerals with the auctions by the Ministry of Mines and the planned Critical Minerals Mission.

“The captious minerals mining artifact auctions tin service arsenic an accidental for India to absorption connected gathering refining and processing capabilities to look arsenic a planetary value-adding hub,” said Rakheja.

“Government enactment successful the signifier of viability spread backing and exertion improvement volition assistance beforehand specified auctions and yet the home accumulation of captious minerals. “A unchangeable proviso of captious minerals is imperative for India to execute its renewable vigor goals,” Konda said.

India has committed to achieving 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil fuel-based energy installed capableness by 2030. Currently, the country’s renewable vigor installed capableness stands astatine 201 GW, with star vigor accounting for 91 GW.

According to different study, the fast-developing South Asian federation needs to instal astir 7,000 GW of renewable vigor capableness to execute net-zero emissions by 2070.