Aysu Bicer
17 June 2026•Update: 17 June 2026
G7 leaders have unveiled an ambitious plan to slash their reliance on single dominant suppliers such as China for the critical minerals essential to the global digital and green energy sectors.
In a joint declaration backed by partner country Australia, the group expressed "grave concerns regarding the use of non-market policies and practices and economic coercion," warning that arbitrary export restrictions and retaliatory measures are actively undermining international economic security.
To counter these vulnerabilities, the G7 has launched the Critical Minerals Resilience and Production Alliance.
The alliance has set a target of reducing dependency on any single supplier outside the bloc for rare earths and permanent magnets to under 60% by 2030, with an ultimate ambition of reaching 50% as soon as possible.
Ministers have also been tasked with setting specific reduction targets for other critical minerals before the end of the year.
The strategy marks a major shift toward securing supply chains among trusted allies.
The bloc welcomed significant financial momentum already underway, highlighting 195 projects announced since the beginning of 2026 that have mobilized €64 billion ($74 billion) in investment.
To protect these industries from market volatility, the G7 is exploring economic safety nets, including price-gap subsidies, joint procurement instruments and price floors.
Furthermore, the leaders committed to a new traceability framework aimed at combating illegal trafficking and ensuring high environmental and labor standards.
The initiative will begin with two pilot minerals, lithium and nickel, before expanding to five new minerals each year.
Leaders also pledged to implement the G7 Toolkit for Standards-Based Criteria to Identify Risks of Forced Labour to ensure ethical extraction.
Supported by the International Energy Agency and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the alliance will share data to anticipate supply crises, build domestic stockpiles and scale up recycling capabilities to meet a significant share of the G7's mineral consumption by 2030.
The global critical minerals market is sharply divided between raw material extraction giants and China, which maintains unrivaled dominance by refining more than 90% of the world's rare earths, 80% of battery-grade graphite and the majority of global lithium and cobalt.
While resource-rich nations such as Australia (lithium), Chile (copper), Indonesia (nickel) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (cobalt) lead in mining, they remain heavily reliant on Chinese infrastructure to process these raw materials into usable components.
This leaves Western powers playing catch-up. The United States and Canada possess significant mining potential but lack sufficient domestic refining capacity, while the European Union remains heavily dependent on imports because of strict environmental regulations and high operating costs.
