Rare earths

While the scarcity of oil reserves and our dependence on oil have been discussed for several years in connection with resource security and climate change, the dependence on so-called rare earths has only come to the attention of the wider public in the last two years. Rare earths are the crucial basis for the development of many high-tech products such as wind turbines, cell phones and batteries for electric vehicles. China’s decision to further reduce the export quotas for rare earths not only caused the prices for these raw materials to rise, but also showed the industrialized countries how dependent they are on China as a quasi-monopoly supplier of rare earths. In this UfU study, China’s rare earth policy and its effects on the three high-tech countries Germany, Japan and the USA were analyzed from a political science perspective. The study shows how China has used its wealth of rare earths to establish a globally dominant monopoly position and is now using this position as a “political weapon” to resolve conflicts in other areas. In addition, the ways in which Germany, Japan and the USA are taking to reduce their dependency on China and gain secure access to rare earths will be worked out. The availability of resources, political strategies and research projects of the individual countries are examined and the question of how sustainable “green” high-tech products can be when the extraction of rare earths causes major ecological problems is asked.