The India-Australia Partnership: Building Resilient Clean Energy Supply Chains
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: International Relations (India-Australia relations, Quad); Indian Economy (Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, Critical Minerals); Environment (Renewable energy targets, International Solar Alliance - ISA).
Mains:
General Studies Paper 2 (International Relations): Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
General Studies Paper 3 (Economy, Environment, S&T): Infrastructure: Energy; Conservation, climate change; Indigenization of technology and developing new technology. The geopolitical dimensions of the clean energy transition is a key contemporary topic.
Key Highlights from the News
Cooperation between India and Australia is crucial for achieving their clean energy targets, and addressing supply chain challenges.
Main Challenge: China’s dominance in the supply chain of solar panels, batteries, and critical minerals. This poses a security threat to both countries.
The India-Australia Renewable Energy Partnership (REP) was launched to reduce this excessive dependence and enhance supply chain resilience.
Opportunities in this cooperation:
Australia: A major producer of critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements.
India: Large market, demographic dividend, and manufacturing incentive schemes like PLI.
A key objective of this partnership is for Australia to provide raw materials, and for both countries to jointly invest in refining and processing them and manufacturing products in India.
This partnership will help create a new clean energy ecosystem in the Indo-Pacific region, as an alternative to China.
COMMENTS