The manufacturing facilities for the key clean energy technologies examined in this briefing can be developed relatively quickly, which – combined with recent policies to boost manufacturing – has created great dynamism in these sectors. For countries looking to establish a competitive position in the new clean energy economy, the industrial strategy decisions taken today will shape deployment and trade of clean technologies through to 2030 and beyond.

G7 members have already recognised the importance of building resilient, secure and sustainable supply chains to accelerate the clean energy transition and reduce vulnerabilities associated with undue dependencies. There is much countries can do domestically to proactively address the risks posed to supply chains – including developing industrial strategies that leverage their competitive advantages – but international co-operation will be crucial to ease, hasten and extend any progress that is to be made. The IEA stands ready to support G7 members and other governments in this endeavour.

With this in mind, this briefing concludes with recommendations for G7 members (also applicable to other interested countries), focussed on actions that require international co-operation:

1. Co‑ordinate efforts across supply chains to determine risks posed to different elements that could delay or disrupt deployment and resilience in the face of potential market shocks. Much attention is now paid – quite rightly – to the security of supply of critical minerals, but supply chains are only as strong as their weakest link. G7 members should co-ordinate the work they are doing at each stage in the supply chain, examining remaining gaps that may lead to bottlenecks.
2. Identify and build strategic partnerships, both within the G7 and beyond. For most countries, it is not realistic to effectively compete in all supply chain steps, nor in all supply chains. Understanding relative strengths and competitiveness, and the potential to build complementary strategic partnerships, should be key considerations of industrial strategies, particularly for clean technology manufacturing.
3. Facilitate investment in emerging market and developing economies with pooled investments, knowledge-sharing and other strategies to reduce risks – and consequently, the costs of financing – for capital-intensive components of supply chains. Foreign direct investment should find an appropriate balance between export opportunities and support for in-country clean energy transitions and socio-economic development.
4. Develop a platform to inform the process of identifying strategic partnerships for manufacturing. Such a platform could provide analytical information on current and projected future market sizes, production costs for different countries and regions and future expansion plans – among other insights – helping to reveal mutually beneficial relationships between countries.
5. Share best practice and domestic experience on measures relevant to accelerating progress in clean technology manufacturing, such as creating favourable investment conditions, accelerating permitting and stockpiling of input materials and components. 'How-to-guides’ for developing industrial strategies could be a vehicle for disseminating such efforts among countries.
6. Promote manufacturing technologies and strategies to enhance resource efficiency, thereby increasing the resilience of clean technology supply chains. Manufacturing processes that minimise material use, and technology designs that incorporate substitute materials when the security of supply of a given input is in question, should be incentivised through innovation policy, along with product designs that facilitate re-use, repairability and recyclability. Designing and adopting standards for clean technologies, such as common taxonomies and definitions for low- and zero emission products and materials, can support traceability of products and components and facilitate trade of components/scrap. Standards that determine which materials and practices are acceptable in clean technology supply chains can also promote transparency.