London School of Economics Grantham Research Institue on Climate Change and the Environment
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Options for diversifying India’s critical mineral supply chains

Published 5 December, 2025 Report Foundational topics
Authors | Juan Pablo Martínez | Karthik Bansal | Ganesh Sivamani
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As a major fossil fuel importer with abundant renewable energy resources, it is in India’s interest to transition towards a low-carbon economy. At the 26th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP26) in November 2021, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2070. Alongside its decarbonisation goals, the Indian Government also aims to attain developed nation status by 2047, which will massively increase the country’s energy demand. To meet these goals simultaneously, India will need to adopt low-carbon capital at a significant scale to replace its current fossil fuel-intensive infrastructure. However, the adoption of low-carbon technologies requires substantially greater inputs of critical minerals, for which India is currently heavily import-dependent.

This report maps out India’s main import partners for cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium and nickel and projects future demand for these minerals and rare earth elements under different International Energy Agency scenarios and for different low-carbon technologies before evaluating potential diversification options for India’s critical mineral supply chains.

Recommendations

To support the diversification of India’s critical mineral supply chains, the Indian Government should adopt policies that:

  • Diversify and invest in foreign and domestic critical minerals capacity urgently, particularly as the mineral intensity of the Indian economy is expected to grow significantly in the coming years as it transitions towards a low-carbon economy.
  • Grant companies that are willing to invest in geological surveys the associated mining rights, or provide better compensation schemes when those rights are auctioned to other companies.
  • Facilitate long-term agreements between local producers of low-carbon technologies and foreign parties with abundant mineral supplies, thereby increasing certainty on input prices and ensuring constant access to materials that are hard to substitute for.
  • Make diplomatic and commercial efforts to strengthen trade relationships between India and Australia, Canada, Finland, Brazil, the Philippines and Chile, to enable the diversification of India’s critical mineral supply chains.