In February 2023, the Commission published a Green Industrial Plan. Comprising four pillars, one of these is explicitly linked to global cooperation and “making trade work for the green transition”.

The Green Industrial Plan announces proposals to develop initiatives on critical raw materials and to assist the EU in moving towards its Net Zero objectives. Critical raw materials are already recognised to involve complex supply chains.

In March 2023, the Commission published a package of proposals under the first pillar of the Green Industrial Plan. These include two proposals for Regulations – one on securing sustainable supplies of critical raw materials (“the Critical Raw materials Act”) and the other on supporting EU Net-Zero industries to increase capacity – the “Net Zero Act”. These proposals are due to be supplemented by a number of other initiatives in this area.