MADRID: The European Union might develop into as depending on China for lithium-ion batteries and gas cells by 2030 because it was on Russia for vitality earlier than the struggle in Ukraine until it takes robust measures, a paper ready for EU leaders stated.
The doc, obtained by Reuters, would be the foundation of discussions on Europe’s financial safety throughout a gathering of EU leaders in Granada in Spain on Oct 5.
Frightened by China’s rising international assertiveness and financial weight, the leaders will talk about the European Fee’s proposals to cut back the danger of Europe being too depending on China and the necessity diversify in the direction of Africa and Latin America.
The paper stated that due to the intermittent nature of renewable vitality sources like photo voltaic or wind, Europe will want methods to retailer vitality to achieve its aim of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
“This may skyrocket our demand for lithium-ion batteries, gas cells and electrolysers, which is predicted to multiply between 10 and 30 instances within the coming years,” the paper, ready by the Spanish presidency of the EU, stated.
Whereas the EU has a powerful place within the intermediate and meeting phases of constructing electrolysers, with a greater than 50 per cent international market share, it depends closely on China for gas cells and lithium-ion batteries essential for electrical automobiles.
“With out implementing robust measures, the European vitality ecosystem might have a dependency on China by 2030 of a distinct nature, however with an analogous severity, from the one it had on Russia earlier than the invasion of Ukraine,” it stated.
In response to the European Fee, in 2021, the 12 months earlier than the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU took greater than 40 per cent of its whole fuel consumption, 27 per cent of oil imports and 46 per cent of coal imports from Russia.
Ending most vitality purchases from Russia induced an vitality value shock within the EU and a surge in shopper inflation, forcing the European Central Financial institution to sharply increase rates of interest in a transfer that has curbed financial development.
Lithium-ion batteries and gas cells weren’t the one space of EU vulnerability, the Spanish presidency paper stated.
“The same state of affairs might unfold within the digital-tech house,” the doc stated. “Forecasts recommend that the demand for digital units equivalent to sensors, drones, information servers, storage tools and information transmission networks will rise sharply on this decade.”
“The EU has a comparatively robust place within the latter, nevertheless it reveals vital weaknesses within the different areas,” it stated.
By 2030, this international dependency might severely hinder the productiveness positive aspects that the European business and repair sector urgently require and will impede the modernisation of agriculture techniques important to addressing local weather change, it stated.
