Canada’s Critical Minerals Have a Big, Underutilized Export Market in the EU: Report
August 27, 2026
With demand for critical minerals set to skyrocket, driven primarily by the rise of clean technologies, critical minerals are becoming the new oil.
Canada has significant reserves of the minerals needed, as well as a clearly stated ambition to be a clean energy superpower. But as it looks to build its export potential—and as trade with the U.S. becomes increasingly challenging—Canada needs to do more to seize one of its biggest opportunities: the EU. That’s according to a new report from Clean Energy Canada.
With some of the world’s leading clean energy and climate policies, EU demand for critical minerals is huge: lithium demand from EVs and energy storage is projected to increase nine- to 12-fold by 2030, for example. However, the bloc lacks sufficient domestic resources to meet this demand without international partners. And a current reliance on just a handful of non-allied countries (China in particular) for its supply has the EU specifically seeking global partners that meet its high environmental, social, and governance standards.
With Canada’s clean grid, growing opportunities for Indigenous-led mining projects, and existing trade agreements, Canada is well-placed to be a key supplier. Only Norway ranked higher than Canada in Clean Energy Canada’s analysis of how well the EU’s current suppliers meet its trade and sustainability criteria.
But despite ticking all the right boxes, the Canadian pipeline of critical minerals to the EU has barely increased in recent years.
A flurry of MOUs, agreements, and a new joint statement at the most recent G7 summit indicate some signs of change. But, as our report explores, the next step is to move past the MOU stage and focus on key areas of EU demand while leveraging Canada’s existing strengths.
The report offers a number of recommendations. Firstly, Canada must prioritize the six critical minerals essential to the energy transition that are also on both the Canadian and EU lists of critical or strategic minerals: cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements.
Secondly, Canada also needs to do a better job of promoting its ample advantages and tailoring them to the EU’s requirements. Canada has several specific opportunities it could demonstrate, from sending our low-carbon raw cobalt to refineries in Finland to exporting graphite to German EV battery manufacturers.
By being proactive, Canada could also unlock new EU financing opportunities, including from the European Investment Bank—one of the largest multilateral financial institutions in the world.
As the global economy electrifies, Canada has an opportunity to leverage our critical mineral resources to secure our long term economic competitiveness and position Canada as the type of energy superpower that will last.
KEY FACTS
- Canada is home to reserves of many of the critical minerals required to power the energy transition. Canada’s lithium reserves, for instance, could supply around half of cumulative global demand from 2030 to 2050, with 95% of the demand generated by the clean energy transition—electric vehicle batteries in particular.
- EU lithium demand from EVs and energy storage is projected to increase nine- to 12 fold by 2030.
- The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act aims to reduce critical mineral supply chain concentration and prioritize international partners that meet trade, sustainability and other ESG criteria.
- When Clean Energy Canada compared the top five producers and refiners currently supplying the EU for each of the six critical minerals using a number of indicators that could represent the EU’s priorities, Canada was ranked as one of the top suppliers, second only to Norway. Canada’s clean electricity grid, free trade agreement, and defence partnerships all give it advantages.
