The World Bank is looking into expanding a new project that aims to diversify renewable energy supply chains in Central Asia and Latin America, President Ajay Banga told reporters Monday.
Together with Japan, the multilateral lender launched the Resilient and Inclusive Supply-chain Enhancement initiative last October. The initiative aims to help emerging economies that produce critical minerals used in batteries, solar panels and other green equipment to build capacity by offering them financial and technological assistance.
“We are working with two African countries already on trying to get them to line up for this,” Banga said during his first official visit to Tokyo as chief of the bank. “We think that some Central Asian countries could be good candidates, as well as some in Latin America,” he added.
The initiative aims to reduce the risks of overreliance on China, which dominates key stages in the manufacture of batteries, solar panels and wind turbines.