The writer is executive director of the International Energy Agency

Batteries are a crucial part of our everyday lives and our economies: they’re in everything from phones and watches to cars and factories. Their role is only set to get bigger, especially in the energy sector, as costs come down and demand rises.

But the world’s battery supply chains show a worrying dependency on one single country — China. History has shown that dependence on a single supplier for a major fuel or technology brings huge risks, as Europe found with Russia and gas to its great cost in 2022. Export controls Beijing announced earlier this month highlighted how it could turn this into a major pain point for industries such as AI data centres, electricity networks, defence technologies and high-tech manufacturing.