2023-09-28 03:58:34
France signed two bilateral agreements on Wednesday with Canada and Australia to “secure” its supplies of critical metals, essential for the energy transition and the reduction of its CO2 emissions, announced the French Ministry of Energy Transition. These two agreements “aim to develop the critical minerals sectors, including extraction, processing and recycling projects, and to promote cooperation,” the ministry said in a press release.
The signing of these two agreements, on the eve of the first summit of theInternational Energy Agency (AIE) dedicated to these resources, “is a further step towards securing our supplies of critical minerals”, estimated the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, quoted in the press release.
She recalled the launch in May of an investment fund of two billion euros to facilitate France’s access to these resources used in particular to supply the four giga-battery factories currently being built in the country, or to connect future offshore wind farms.
Another critical mineral, while France has relaunched the construction of nuclear power plants: uranium. “Uranium exports from Canada to Europe have increased significantly and we expect them to continue to increase,” Canadian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson told AFP on Wednesday. .
Identical social and environmental standards
While Canada is now the third largest supplier to the EU, behind Kazakhstan and Niger, exports from this African country in the grip of a coup may “not be as significant in the years to come », underlined Jonathan Wilkinson, who sees his country continuing to progress in the hierarchy of suppliers to Europe. The agreements signed on Wednesday are “not commercial agreements which will secure such a volume of supply contract on such or such metals”, clarified the French ministry.
“It is a question of developing these critical mineral sectors in terms of extraction, processing, recycling, of promoting industrial and university cooperation in terms of research and development”, between French companies and these two countries which have the same social and environmental standards, the same source added.
This “strategic framework” concerns “all minerals and that includes uranium”, specified the minister’s office, while in parallel with the IEA summit in Paris, France is also organizing Thursday with the OECD another international conference, on nuclear power.
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