The UK will break China's control over key net-zero emissions supply chains, Energy Secretary Chris McDonald has promised.
McDonald, a joint minister at the Department for Energy Security and Zero Emissions and the Department for Business and Trade, told "Politico" that it is determined to boost domestic access to critical minerals.
Critical minerals such as lithium and copper are used in key net-zero emissions technologies such as electric vehicles and batteries, as well as in defence assets such as the F35 fighter jet.
According to the government’s critical minerals strategy published last week, China currently controls 90% of rare earths refining.
McDonald said China’s dominance in minerals processing risks raising prices for the transition to net-zero consumption. The UK has made a legally binding commitment to reduce its planet-damaging emissions to net-zero consumption by 2050.
McDonald fears that China has become a "monopoly supplier" of critical minerals and that its dominant role in processing has allowed China to control costs for buyers.
"We want to get control of that supply chain in the UK as part of our industrial strategy. To do that... means that ultimately we will have to win control of critical minerals back into the hands of a wide group of countries, not just China," he said.
The government's critical minerals strategy includes a target that by 2035, including China, no more than 60 per cent of the UK's annual demand for critical minerals should come from any one country.
"So if there is investment from China that helps with that, then great. And if it doesn't help with that or somehow compounds the problem that doesn't align with our strategy, then ultimately we judge it on that basis," Mr McDonald said.