A statement was issued at the Évian summit that could prove to be of great importance. It concerns the security of supply chains for critical raw materials: lithium, nickel, rare earth elements, and permanent magnets. These are the materials that underpin the energy and digital transitions. Without them, it would be impossible to make batteries for electric cars, build wind turbines, or produce advanced chips.
The leaders openly acknowledged that the high market concentration of these minerals represents a strategic vulnerability, and condemned the use of arbitrary trade restrictions: diplomatic language that does not name China, but leaves no doubt as to the target: Beijing remains the dominant player in most of these markets globally.
A New Quantitative Target
The most concrete new element of the declaration is the numerical target. By 2030, dependence on a single non-G7 supplier for rare earths and permanent magnets must fall below 60%, with the goal of reaching 50% as soon as possible. For other critical minerals, the relevant ministers will be required to set a specific target for reducing dependence by the end of the year.
This is the first time the G7 has set a specific target in this area. It is not a binding commitment—and this is a clear limitation—but it marks a shift from the vagueness of previous years. The transition from concern to planning is already a significant political step forward.
The leaders welcomed the progress already made, citing 195 projects announced since the beginning of 2026, representing a total of 64 billion euros in investments in the value chains of critical minerals, including equity investments and purchase agreements. These figures are still far from the scale needed, but they point in the right direction.
A New Institutional Framework
To coordinate all of this, the G7 has established a non-binding alliance for the resilience and production of critical minerals, with the aim of strengthening the diversification and resilience of value chains and streamlining existing initiatives. It is called the G7 Critical Minerals Resilience and Production Alliance, and it will also be open to partner countries that share its principles.
The Alliance will have a permanent platform for cooperation, with a mandate that includes sharing data on prices, supply, and demand; monitoring vulnerabilities in supply chains; and the coordinated management of any supply crises. In this context, a central role is entrusted to the IEA and the OECD, which are already active in data collection and analysis.
The market alone is not enough
One of the most interesting aspects of the statement is the explicit acknowledgment that market logic alone may not be enough to ensure resilient supply chains. The G7 countries have committed to evaluating tools that, until just a few years ago, would have been considered too interventionist: requirements for supply diversification, price stabilization mechanisms, subsidies to bridge cost differentials, joint procurement, market quotas, and minimum prices.
It is, in essence, an active industrial policy applied to raw materials. This represents a significant paradigm shift for economies that for decades have touted the free market as the solution to all resource allocation problems. Geopolitical realities have convinced even the most reluctant to admit that public intervention is necessary.
Transparency, Inventory, and Circularity
The declaration goes into operational detail on three fronts. The first concerns traceability: a harmonized system will be launched to track the origin of critical raw materials, starting with lithium and nickel as pilot projects, with the goal of gradually expanding it to rare earth elements and five additional minerals per year. This effort will be coordinated with the OECD and the IEA, and also aims to ensure compliance with environmental and social standards, including the fight against forced labor in mines.
The second point concerns strategic reserves. The G7 countries are committed to developing and strengthening national reserves of critical raw materials, and to establishing a common mechanism for sharing information and early warnings about potential market tensions. An early warning system that would make it possible to anticipate crises such as the natural gas crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, thereby avoiding having to scramble to respond to an emergency.
The third area is thecircular economy. The declaration assigns a central role to recycling as a means of reducing dependence on imports, with commitments to recover materials from mining waste, regulatory and economic incentives for recycled content, and specific recycling targets to be defined by the end of the year. The goal is that by 2030, a significant portion of the G7’s annual needs will be met by recycled materials.
The Chinese Issue
China is never explicitly mentioned in the text. But it is the elephant in the room. Beijing controls the vast majority of global rare earth production and refining, produces nearly all of the neodymium permanent magnets used in electric motors and turbines, and has already demonstrated that it is willing to use this dominant position as a trade weapon. It did so with export restrictions on gallium and germanium in 2023, and tried it again in response to U.S. tariffs.
On the sidelines of the summit, von der Leyen made it clear that global imbalances in production are increasingly threatening the stability of the world economy, and that cooperation between the G7 and partner countries is essential to ensuring adequate access to these raw materials.
The real test will come in the coming months, when ministers will have to translate these intentions into concrete targets for each critical raw material. And in the years to come, when we’ll see whether the 64 billion already announced is the beginning of a systematic effort or just another sum that remains on paper.
