Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King represented Australia at the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Summit last week.
The IEA’s Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Summit was held in Paris on September 28, and focused on measures promoting the secure, sustainable and responsible supply of critical materials that will help the global clean energy transition.
The Summit hosted ministers from countries around the world, as well as business leaders, investors, heads of international organisations and civil society representatives.
Australia’s relationship with the IEA is led by the Critical Minerals Office (CMO), which provides national policy and strategic advice and facilitation services for industry to grow Australia’s critical minerals sector.
King chaired the IEA members-only session of the Summit, and Australia’s CMO general manager and IEA’s critical minerals working party chair Victoria Pullen also addressed attendees and led the working party meeting.
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources said that Australia emphasised the IEA’s six outcomes from the Summit, which included:
- accelerating progress towards diversified minerals supplies
- unlocking the power of technology and recycling
- promoting transparency in markets
- enhancing the availability of reliable information
- creating incentives for sustainable and reliable practises
- fostering international collaboration.
The IEA is expected to meet again in February 2024 to consolidate progress made and to agree on the next steps in increasing critical minerals efforts.
Australia’s presence at the Summit ties into the Federal Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy originally released in June.
One of the strategy’s six outcomes is to attract investment and building international partnerships, to optimise trade and investment settings for priority technologies.
While King was in Paris, she signed the Bilateral Dialogue on Critical Minerals agreement with French Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher.