India, Oct. 11 -- Major economies are scrambling to develop their own responses to restrictions of rare earths and critical minerals through domestic policies and international deals. Near-term reactions will eventually need to give way to long-term strategic action. In the clean energy transition, critical minerals cannot go the oil and gas way.

Most recently, Beijing has announced tighter restrictions on exports of rare earths. The applications of copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements in solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, standalone batteries, and semiconductors are well known. Less understood is how countries and companies define their criticality. For some, it depends on the strategic importance to key...