ARGUMENT: BATTERIES WARBatteries Are the Battlefield

The United States is one of many countries pursuing the clean energy revolution, and which have ramped up investment in electric vehicles manufacturing and renewable energy sources to power the shift away from fossil fuels.

Christina Lu and Liam Scott write in Foreign Policy that this is an industry that has already been staked out by another power: China.

They add:

After a decades-long push, Beijing wields considerable control over supply chains for lithium-ion batteries, which are critical to everything from electric cars to smartphones. That dominance has transformed those powerful batteries—and the key metals they comprise of—into a thorny geopolitical flash point during a period of heightened tensions.

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Forged from critical minerals—including lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese—lithium-ion batteries can hold considerable energy, making them crucial to efforts to swap out fossil fuels for cleaner alternatives.

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As demand for electric vehicles skyrockets, nations have been scrambling to tap the riches in the ground for these batteries. Global sales of electric vehicles doubled in 2021 from the previous year.

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To power the energy transition in the coming decades, these battery inputs will become even more pivotal. The World Bank has projected that billions of tons of minerals could be necessary to supply clean energy technology by 2050.

The bulk of these raw materials can be found in a handful of mineral-rich nations…. Once dug up, the ore needs to be refined and processed—and that’s where Beijing dominates across the board….

That is the product of Beijing’s deliberate, decades-long effort to build up its own industry…. The result has rattled policymakers in Washington, where heightened tensions with China have fueled concerns that Beijing could leverage its influence for geopolitical ends—as it has before. Most recently, Russia’s tightening chokehold on Europe’s natural gas supply showcased the dangers of economic over-dependence on political foes.

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It’s not just in battery supply chains where China plays a commanding role either. Across a spate of clean energy technologies—including wind power and solar panels—Beijing’s manufacturing and trade capacity have eclipsed much of the world’s.

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“China definitely understands its dominance in this industry and could decide to flip the switch at any point,” said Sam Howell, who researches technology and national security at the Center for a New American Security. “The scary part is that there’s no simple or short-term fix for the U.S.”