Second Wind Turbine Shock (The Roundup)
G7 Leaders Make a Minerals Declaration, Germany resists China Shock + all the important stories you've missed (June 21, 2026)
👋 Welcome to A World Reconfigured - your guide to a world changed by climate, geopolitics and technology. I write about how climate change is creating a new world with new rules, and often cover topics like the ❄️Arctic, 🤷♂️Rare Earths and 💻Data Centers.
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TL;DR
The Bigger Things
G7 vs. Chinese Minerals Law (put your hands in the air)
Data Center Wars: FERCed (someone brough the feds)
The Smaller Things
Germany tries to resist the Second China Shock (it wasn’t a shock to me)
Bonn Climate Talks stall, Frontier raises lots of cash (meh on climate)
Canada gives Italy prime access to Minerals (Carney is the G7’s cool kid)
In Other News: Rare Earths deals, Solar overpowers gas and so much more
The Bigger Things
The biggest stories you probably missed:
G7 vs. China’s Minerals Regulations
What Happened? Well, it’s never boring on the Minerals frontier.
This week, G7 leaders met in Évian and unveiled a critical minerals declaration and a new Resilience and Production Alliance, pledging to cut reliance on any single supplier for rare earths and magnets below 60% by 2030. The group pointed to 195 projects launched since the start of 2026, worth €64B in investment.
Meanwhile, China unveiled sweeping new mineral regulations two days earlier, handing the State Council broad authority over exploration, mining, and trade of any mineral it deems "strategic." The rules also lay explicit legal grounds for retaliation against countries that restrict China’s mineral supply chains.
Why Care? 🤷♂️ Because both parties are done playing nice. Western attempts to reduce dependency on China are met with expected resistance and retaliation. Beijing, if anything, is setting the stage for such retaliation. With China being a major supplier of a host of critical minerals, one might wonder why the new regulation focuses much on stockpiling. The answer, I believe, might be pretext to future export controls under the guise of national security needs.
My Take: ✍️ Declarations are nice, but there’s a question of execution. The declaration sounds more aspirational than practical, and while I agree an ambitious goal is a must, there’s a question about how will G7 countries get there. It’s too early to tell, but I think there’s a big question on the ability of Western countries to actually build the necessary infrastructure. I hope I’m wrong.
China, on the other hand, just goes for it and shapes reality the best way it knows how - with strict regulation.
Data Center Wars: FERCed
What Happened? US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released a landmark publication, putting six regional transmission operators and independent system operators on notice.
FERC asked them to either justify or rewrite their tariffs within 60 days, structured around five reform areas:
Faster transmission study processes
Transparency to prevent cost-shifting onto ratepayers
Rules for co-location and behind-the-meter generation
New flexible-load transmission services; and
Process for studying generation tied to nearby large loads.
Each operator also owes a 30-day report on whether it has enough generation lined up to serve current and future demand.
Rather than write a single national rulebook, FERC pushed each grid operator to figure out its own path toward letting large loads come online without forcing massive new buildouts.
Why Care? 🤷♂️ Because it’s about damn time. FERC’s move comes at a time of great turmoil and a massive backlash against Data Centers. It’s too early to tell what will be the precise impact, but the areas for reforms issued by FERC seem to touch on the right things. They also force large, slow and conservative organizations like RTOs and ISOs to adopt new technologies to maximize existing infrastructure. This is good news for energy startups.
My Take: ✍️ FERC is trying to do a lot, and I’ll be on the lookout for RTO/ISO attempts to fight the commission. I would also be interested seeing how politics play out on this front, with high stakes and high feelings all around.
The Smaller Things
The stories you should have on your radar:
Germany Tries to Resist the China Shock 2.0
What Happened: Germany's 50Hertz picked a Siemens Energy-led consortium to build a 2GW offshore wind converter platform, the first of its scale to be built almost entirely in Germany. A second platform is under negotiation.
The deal comes as Berlin looks to shield its wind supply chain from cheaper Chinese competitors, going as far as cancelling existing Chinese contracts.
Why Care? 🤷♂️ Because Germany is actively working to prevent China from hollowing out yet another industry, after decimating the German solar industry. There is a broader, Europe-wide resistance to, and fear of the Second China Shock. If the first China Shock in the early 2000s focused on consumer goods and low-grade clothing, the second one is more focused on advanced manufacturing of Solar Panels, EVs, Robotics and more.
If the first China Shock decimated the US manufacturing base, then the second one will likely hit Europe’s heavy industries hard, if they let it. After years of complacency, Germany is trying to fight back.
My Take: ✍️ I dunno. On the one hand, this is a good step in the direction, but Germany will need to pony up a lot more than EUR 300M. The bigger question is what is Europe’s plan to deal with multifrontal assult on its industrial base? Pure protectionism might not cut it.
Climate Meh: Bonn Talks Stuck, Frontier Raises Loads of Money for Carbon Removal
What Happened: Two weeks of UN climate talks in Bonn ended in what negotiators themselves called "gridlock," with countries failing to agree on key adaptation finance and emissions-cutting text, punting both, under the UNFCCC's "Rule 16," to COP31 in Antalya this November.
Meanwhile, Frontier, the Stripe-founded carbon removal buyers' coalition, raised $915 million in new commitments from Stripe, Google, Shopify, Salesforce, H&M, and new entrant Anthropic, doubling its total purchasing pledge to $1.8 billion to support the most promising removal technologies toward gigaton scale.
Why Care? 🤷♂️ Because climate action is not linear or consistent. You win some, you lose some. It seems like the current state of affairs in diplomacy is not looking too bright, while the private market shows tangible progress.
My Take: ✍️ I’d be on the lookout for next year’s Bonn climate talks, once we (unforuntely) feel the wrath of El-Nino.
Canada Lets Italy Get Prime Access to its Minerals
What Happened: On the sidelines of the G7 in Évian, Canadian PM Mark Carney offered Italy priority access to Canada's critical mineral reserves, with Giorgia Meloni signaling Italy's intent to collaborate on stockpiling. The move builds on Eni's ~C$100M investment in Nouveau Monde Graphite's Matawinie project and Italy's membership in Canada's Critical Minerals Production Alliance.
Why Care? 🤷♂️ Because Carney is staying true to his word, working hard to turn Canada into a middle power using Canada’s natural resources (which are now in high demand). I wrote about this before:
Carney’s efforts are starting to pay off, with more and more middle powers countries courting Canada in specific fields, like Critical Minerals.
My Take: ✍️ Love him or hate him, Carney is not resting on his laurels. I for once am a big fan of Carney’s work on the world stage (for the most part) and think his work to help Canada find its place in a post US period might just work.
In Other News:
📰 Solar power now outsupplying gas on California’s grid most days as panel buildout pushes utility-scale solar generation ahead of gas in the year’s first five months (darn what am I going to do with all them turbines!)
📰 UK and Japan line up an £18b clean‑energy pact anchored by up to £9b in Japanese capital for 5.9 GW of UK floating offshore wind, marketed as enough juice for 8m homes (i am selling new turbines if anyone wants them)
📰 India’s monsoon starts almost 40% below normal as El Niño threatens crops, construction and industrial output (not funny tbh)
📰 Spain mulls support for solar manufacturers as oversupply and negative power prices squeeze domestic industry (should have applied for it earlier)
📰 Ucore, Sumitomo ink rare earths supply pact to feed Louisiana refinery and channel magnet materials into Japan’s high-end manufacturing chain (big in Japan)
📰 Pentagon grants conditional $500m loan to Phoenix Tailings for US ‘Freedom Facility’ rare earth midstream plant targeting 2028 startup as backbone of Western mine-to-magnet supply chain (I am selling rare earths as well if you’re interested)
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