Businesses have yet to fully grasp the risks of relying on Chinese supply chains, an issue that will become more critical as the net-zero push sets to increase Australia’s reliance on China, according to energy lawyer Scott Schlink.
Schlink, a partner at Holding Redlich, said that in the “foreseeable future,” Australia would continue to rely on overseas manufacturers for renewable energy components in solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries.
“Production in South Korea and China is a significant part of that import,” he told The Epoch Times.
“A big part of the decision [with manufacturing] comes down simply to the cost per unit of electricity—who’s got the cheapest cost of energy. And so, it quickly becomes a pricing decision, and that puts a huge amount of strain on those companies to aggressively minimise their supply chain costs….