Friendshoring of Raw Materials – For a Sustainable Green Transition

Hosted by the U.S. Embassy Stockholm.

With the need for a green transition, challenges around supply and demand for critical minerals and raw materials are a core issue facing the world.

The United States, Canada, Sweden, and the EU as a whole, are seeking to curb their dependence on authoritarian countries as suppliers of these materials and together build safer and more sustainable supply chains. In November last year, the Ambassadors of the United States and Canada joined Svemin’s fall summit for a conversation highlighting the importance of strategic and practical cooperation to secure raw materials supply. Since then, the geopolitical situation has shown little signs of improvement, at the same time the need for building strong and green value chains for the green transition cannot wait. Can Friendshoring between North America (USA/Canada) offer EU and Sweden the stable partnership needed for de-risking and avoid disruption of value chains? How can we ensure that critical minerals are responsibly sourced and support development of domestic and global value chains for the green and digital economy?

Participants:

Erik D. Ramanathan, Ambassador of the United States to Sweden, U.S. Embassy Sweden
Jason La Torre, Ambassador of Canada to Sweden, U.S. Embassy Sweden
Håkan Jevrell, State Secretary to the Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Annika Wäppling Korzinek, Head, EU Commission Sweden, EU Commission Sweden
Jan Moström, CEO, LKAB, Chair, SveMin and EuroMine
Maria Sunér, CEO, Svemin
Emma Härdmark, Communications Director, Svemin