Is there a way to start chipping away at all this?

Chia enjoys a mere monopoly of refining the metals that wee needed, 70 % of the world's lithium, 84 % of nickel and 85 % of cobalt. western companies will serve to rely on chinese ones to convert ores into the refined materials that go into batteries. And the probably chinese refiners is that they rely very heavily on electricity from coal fired power stations, which again diferts the purpose of the transition to electric cars.