Australia and Japan signed a commercial framework agreement, in which Canberra will supply Tokyo with lithium and rare earths, among other raw materials used for manufacturing technologies critical for energy transition, including electric vehicle (EV) batteries, wind turbines and solar panels. The pact follows talks in Sydney in July between four Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) members; Australia, Japan, India and the U.S., to set up supply chains for renewable energy systems that do not rely on undemocratic nations, including China. 

Australia’s Fortescue Metals, one of the world’s biggest iron ore miners, is looking to develop zero-carbon iron using hydrogen at a plant in Austria, with Japan’s Mitsubishi and Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine. This is the first time the Australian miner ventures into “green steel”, which aims to exclude coal from the steelmaking process. Iron ore is the primary input for the majority of steelmaking. The project will use technology developed by Primetals Technologies, a venture involving another Mitsubishi company. It replaces coal-reliant blast furnaces with hydrogen and a smelter powered by electricity. If that electricity is entirely renewable, then in theory the process won’t emit any carbon.

Volkswagen has picked Canada as the location of its battery cell plant in North America, company’s first outside Europe. With the Canadian plant, Volkswagen will be able to get access to both Canadian and U.S. subsidies as it works to localize electric vehicle (EV) production chain in the region. The German automaker announced in December that it was looking at sites in Canada for its new plant, six months after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Canadian government to secure access to critical minerals for batteries.