United States – Australia Statement of Intent: Climate, Critical Minerals, and the Clean Energy Transformation

The United States and Australia recognize that climate change is a threat to global stability, security, and prosperity, including in the Indo-Pacific. The United States and Australia affirm that accelerating the global clean energy transformation is pivotal to keeping the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal within reach and creating an inclusive, clean energy economy.

The United States supports Australia’s actions towards becoming a renewable energy powerhouse globally and in the Indo-Pacific, supplying essential materials and products fundamental to meeting global climate goals. Similarly, Australia welcomes the United States’ actions to transform its domestic energy and industrial base to lead to the establishment of a global clean energy economy, leveraging its technological innovation to global benefit.

Through the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act and Australia’s Powering Australia Plan, both countries are accelerating global climate action to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The United States and Australia commit to support a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific through a fair and equitable energy transformation, enhancing economic opportunities in the region through shared approaches to the diversification of clean energy supply chains in the Indo-Pacific.

The United States and Australia support a global energy transformation, including in the Indo-Pacific, that realizes the economic opportunity in climate action through good, well-paying jobs while protecting the environment, accelerating the transition to net zero, and delivering affordable energy to businesses and households. The United States and Australia underscore our commitments to an inclusive transition that leaves no one behind, underpinned by close collaboration with those disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change, such as Pacific Island countries and other affected communities including women, children, Indigenous peoples, and persons with disability.

In this context, the United States and Australia intend to enhance our cooperation under a new Climate, Critical Minerals, and Clean Energy Transformation Compact (Compact), establishing climate, clean energy, and a shared energy industrial base as a central pillar of the United States-Australia Alliance. Together, the United States and Australia will deliver sustainable, resilient, and secure critical minerals and clean energy technology to the world.

The Compact is a framework to advance ambitious climate and clean energy action this decade both at home and abroad. This includes coordinating policies and investments to support the expansion and diversification of end-to-end clean energy supply chains, accelerating the development of markets for emerging technologies and critical minerals, and meeting the growing energy and adaptation needs of the Indo-Pacific to enhance the region’s role as a driver of resilient and sustainable global prosperity. The Compact recognizes the interrelationship between critical minerals and the clean energy transformation in creating sustainable markets that will provide the inputs necessary to reduce emissions.

While the United States and Australia are urgently decarbonizing our economies to reduce emissions, both countries acknowledge that communities at home and across the Indo-Pacific region are already experiencing the consequences of climate-related extreme weather events and natural disasters. The United States and Australia are unwavering in our commitments to support global climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience efforts, and are deepening coordination to address the needs of those who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including Pacific Island countries.

We direct our Governments to report back to us on progress under the Compact by the end of 2023.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR. ANTHONY ALBANESE
President of the United States of America Prime Minister of Australia

May 20, 2023
Hiroshima, Japan