Energy security is an increasing concern for governments across the world, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But decarbonising power, transport and home heating will reduce reliance on imports of oil and gas and help to secure energy supply.

The government insists the solution is “clean, homegrown power”, but where will the critical raw materials like lithium, cobalt and other rare earth elements, necessary for our energy infrastructure, including renewables and electric vehicles (EVs), come from? Currently, the UK imports most of the materials it needs but there is an opportunity to further improve energy security by reducing demand for these materials and keeping them in circulation at their highest value possible, through reuse, remanufacturing and recycling.

In this report, we propose five steps to greater energy security through demand reduction and circularity.