EU must reduce dependence on China for renewable energy: IRENA boss

“It is important to work to decentralize the supply chain,” he said, on the sidelines of an intergovernmental forum in Berlin, dedicated to the development of offshore wind power in the Baltic Sea.

"We need to collaborate more with Africa, South America or Southeast Asia", to produce the infrastructures necessary for the energy transition, added Mr. La Camera.

The EU is particularly dependent on China to supply itself with minerals and components for solar panels and wind turbines, as part of its energy transition.

The 27 buy 98% of their rare metals from China, essential for many green technologies. Beijing also holds 60% of the world's production capacity for batteries, wind turbines and solar panels.

The coronavirus pandemic and the geopolitical tensions between Westerners and Beijing over Taiwan have particularly highlighted this dependence, with the appearance of bottlenecks.

"In our opinion, this situation is worrying", declared Mr. La Camera, who therefore calls for "developing interconnections on minerals, on green industries with developing countries".

"This is what will allow Europeans to achieve their objectives" in terms of carbon neutrality, he added.

EU Member States recently agreed to double the share of renewables in energy consumption to 42,5% by 2030, in particular by speeding up infrastructure authorization procedures.

But to achieve this objective, European industry must manufacture the equivalent of 20 GW of offshore wind turbines per year within five years, against a capacity of around 7 currently, at the risk of saturated factories and bottlenecks. strangulation.

The European Commission therefore presented in mid-March a regulatory simplification plan on subsidies, intended to relocate these productions, and meet 40% of its needs with its own factories by 2030.