Governments are being to urged ditch short-term politics and get on with attracting capital for critical minerals or risk making the energy transition harder and more expensive.
Stable fiscal settings, streamlined planning and permitting processes, and harmonised standards are needed, BHP chief executive Mike Henry has told an international summit in Paris.
"Today, too often we still see short-termism in government policy, or policies which seek to meet near-term political objectives, but which show limited understanding of what drives investment," Mr Henry told politicians, producers and manufacturers from almost 50 countries.
"And this slows up deployment of capital and will ultimately make the energy transition harder and more expensive."
The mining giant's boss said the drive to decarbonise the world's energy system would require significantly more copper, nickel, lithium and even steelmaking raw materials.
"We must work together to go about this in the right way - guided by common global standards, and with good governance, throughout the whole of the value chain," he said.
More projects needed to be identified, permitted and given the green light by those who were to invest in them, he said.
"Governments that do provide this certainty and stability will be the winners in this race to meet the world's need for critical minerals," Mr Henry said.
He warned subsidies could distort as well as accelerate markets and, handled poorly, could inadvertently undermine the long-term goal of securing sufficient and low-cost supply.
"Capital markets should work in a way that promotes the objective of low-cost and stable supply, and indeed uses their firepower, to enable - or to constrain - access to capital," he said.
The International Energy Agency summit has come up with ways to boost secure supplies of the materials needed for more wind turbines, electric cars and solar panels.
IEA executive director Fatih Birol said critical minerals must become "a symbol of international co-operation rather than resource anxiety".
Better market pricing and deeper data will support a properly functioning market in battery commodities, as well as more supplies to end the dependence on China.
Technology and recycling will be needed to get the most out of all potential sources such as e-waste, industry scrap, end-of-life batteries, wind turbines and industrial magnets.
Incentives for sustainable and responsible mining and processing of factory ready materials will also be critical, the agency said.
