The United States and its allies must encourage mining projects in countries where Western corporations are reticent to do business, in order to guarantee a reliable and sustainable global supply of the critical minerals needed to combat climate change, according to a senior White House official.
Amos Hochstein, the White House senior adviser for energy and investment, warned that mineral resources in nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia are essential to meeting the enormous global demand for clean energy components and power infrastructure to support the growth of artificial intelligence. These resources also offer an alternative to the world’s current dependence on China.
Hochstein stressed that the energy transition cannot happen if it can only be produced where people live, under their own standards. He said that the U.S. and its allies, including the G7 nations, Australia, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, must collaborate to unlock capital that would back up companies currently unwilling to take on projects in countries deemed risky to their reputations or assets.
The capital could flow through U.S. agencies like the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Export-Import Bank of the United States, and global institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Hochstein said these collaborations must offer countries incentives to improve their communities and quality of life.
“The government has a real role here of incentivizing private capital by taking more risk in this initial work, in a responsible manner, but more risk to allow the private sector to come in, augment it and allow the investment so that we have a diversified, sustainable and equitable energy transition,” Hochstein said.