Canadian critical minerals will be ‘key’ amid pivot away from China, Russia: minister

Canada can be a trusted partner in the future green economy, Steven Guilbeault says, as nations look to distance themselves from China and Russia.

Canada’s critical minerals will be “key” for the world to meet its climate change goals as nations look to distance themselves from Russia and China, according to the country’s environment and climate change minister.

The two nations, which are major sources of critical minerals like lithium, graphite and nickel, have shown themselves to be unreliable in recent months, and countries are looking for a stable partners, Steven Guilbeault said in an interview with Global News Friday.

Guilbeault said Canada has “all the ingredients” in place to become a long-term partner for nations seeking clean and renewable energy.

“We are in the process of transforming Canada’s auto sector (and) we’re in the process of developing a critical minerals strategy, which is key to the world to meet our climate change goals and Canada is blessed with having almost all that is required to do this transformation,” he said.

“More and more countries like the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea are looking (for this). Right now, the two major sources of critical minerals around the world are China and Russia, and there is a desire by all these countries that I’ve mentioned to deal with reliable partners from a human rights point of view, from a stability point of view, and many of those countries see Canada as one of those countries.”

Following Russia’s invasion in Ukraine on Feb. 24, Europe is facing an oil and gas crisis as it tries to distance itself from its heavy reliance on Russian fossil fuels. Moscow, meanwhile, has been accused by the West of carrying out an energy war by threatening to cut off Europe from its supply. It has reduced supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in recent months, but has cited maintenance issues as the reason why.

Furthermore, Reuters, the BBC and other news outlets reported Friday that Russia is wasting large volumes of natural gas by burning it into the atmosphere near the Finnish border amid the energy crisis.

“It’s just another example of how (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is creating all sorts of problems for, obviously the people of Ukraine who are dramatically impacted by this, but Europe as a whole and even in Russia. It’s creating all sorts of problems which might include this one” Guilbeault said.