Africa: African officials are advocating for tighter limits on the extraction of minerals and metals required for the shift to clean energy, citing concerns about the “injustices and extractivism” of fossil fuel operations.
At the UN environmental assembly in Nairobi on Wednesday, a resolution advocating for the sustainable use of transitional minerals was presented. The resolution is backed by a group of mostly African nations, including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Chad. The resolution will encourage equitable benefit-sharing from extraction through structural change.Delegate Jean Marie Bope of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the countries supporting the resolution, stated, “This resolution is crucial for African countries, the environment, and the future of our population.”
As the globe moves away from fossil fuels, demand for transitional minerals and metals—which are needed to construct renewable energy technologies like solar farms, wind farms, and electric cars—has increased throughout the last ten years. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the world will require billions of tonnes of transitional minerals over the course of the next three decades in order to accomplish its climate targets.Large amounts of the essential minerals are found in Africa. The continent is home to almost half of the world’s cobalt and manganese reserves as well as 92% of its platinum reserves. Two thirds of the world’s supply of cobalt, a mineral used to make batteries for electric vehicles, comes from the DRC. It is still among the poorest nations in the world, nonetheless, despite its enormous natural resources. In the nation’s mining industry, child labor and human rights violations are still pervasive.
According to authorities, mineral-rich African nations have an unexplored opportunity due to the need. Many of the nations in the region lack the internal resources necessary to process these vital transitional minerals. The majority of the world’s mineral production and processing is done in China, therefore the minerals are frequently sent there in their raw form before being refined elsewhere. In an effort to boost domestic processing, a number of African nations that produce minerals have recently placed limits on the export of raw minerals in an effort to capitalize on the economic expansion and job creation that will result from the race for green minerals. Leaders at the assembly stated that agreements that support technological transfers and improve the workforce’s skills and processing capacities in local countries are essential for a fair transition.
Participating in the resolution’s formulation, Bope stated, “Our experience of exporting them raw has shown us that there is no benefit for the continent in that.” “We want to do things differently from how we have done them in the past, but Africa has enough minerals to power the clean energy transition.”Proponents of benefit sharing were echoed by environmental activists. They acknowledged the need for a global move to low-carbon technology but warned that the shift to clean energy runs the risk of reproducing existing disparities in the fossil fuel industry in Africa. According to the African Union, over 75% of the region’s crude oil is exported; the remainder is refined abroad and reimported as petroleum products. Even though 600 million Africans lack access to electricity, it exports 45 percent of its natural gas, which makes a very small contribution to the region’s energy demands.
“We must ensure that industrialization takes place in this region and that we are not merely fulfilling the industrialization agenda of another continent,” stated Seble Samuel, who oversees Africa campaigns and advocacy for the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty movement. “We cannot allow the injustices and extractivism that characterized the fossil fuel economy to recur.”
The executive director of UNEP, Inger Andersen, urged companies and governments to transition to clean energy by using responsibly sourced minerals. He also urged mineral-rich nations to enter into contractual agreements that protect against “colonial models” of resource and labor exploitation.
The executive director of UNEP, Inger Andersen, urged companies and governments to transition to clean energy by using responsibly sourced minerals. He also urged mineral-rich nations to enter into contractual agreements that protect against “colonial models” of resource and labor exploitation.