Critical minerals needed for India’s energy transition

The Paris Agreement, adopted by 196 countries at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in 2015, provided a significant boost to the clean energy transition process, including solar and wind energy and battery storage, resulting in unprecedented global growth in the demand for critical minerals required as inputs to manufacture the requisite equipment. At COP26 held in 2021, India presented its climate action strategy, including a commitment to achieving the target of net zero emissions by 2070. However, there are several challenges in achieving these targets, including mobilising adequate investments, solving technical and operational challenges, and creating a just transition framework. Another imminent concern is ensuring resilient access to the requisite green technologies and the raw materials needed for their manufacturing, referred to as “critical minerals.” This paper estimates the mineral requirements to manufacture the clean energy technologies needed for India to meet its climate action commitments. It highlights the cases in which India has access to these materials domestically and the reliance on imported minerals—in either their raw, processed, or component-embedded forms—to meet the needs of the growing domestic clean energy equipment manufacturing sector. Though the mineral requirements for electric vehicle manufacturing have not been considered in this paper, a large demand is expected from this sector as well. Other sectors being electrified in India include cooking and heating, but their mineral requirements are not computed either. The demand for critical minerals in the clean energy transition will rise manifold over the coming decades. Most of these have been identified as critical by the CSEP and ministry of mines reports. For these minerals, especially those with no known domestic resources, mineral-wise strategies are required to ensure robust access for India’s manufacturing needs and climate change mitigation ambitions. The study also shows that promoting recycling and the use of recycled materials in supply chains can help mitigate additional requirements for mines, as would improvements in mineral intensities and technology efficiencies.