Africa is home to some of the world’s most critical mineral reserves. A proliferation of electronics and clean energy technologies is projected to increase the global demand for minerals like copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt by sixfold in the next 25. Properly managed, these resources offer opportunities including economic growth, infrastructure development, increased foreign investment, and potential leadership in the green energy sector.
Extracting and managing these resources sustainably and equitably remains a significant challenge.
For Africa, a major producer of these critical minerals, global demands are expected to spur the growth of mining activities while potentially driving African countries’ transition to green and cleaner energy.
As a whole Africa is home to about two-thirds of the world’s cobalt reserves, about 10% of copper, 30% of lithium, 15% of rare earth elements, 95% of chromium, 20% of graphite and more than 30% of manganese.
Therefore, the growth in demand for critical minerals presents a major opportunity for the continent. Yet at the same time, and if the historical arc of natural resource extraction and exploitation is of any indication, the promises of prosperity may not fully materialise.
Recognising both the growing importance of these minerals in achieving global sustainability goals and the need to properly guide their extraction, UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched a new panel tasked with creating a framework for equity, transparency, investment, sustainability, and human rights in mineral extraction.
“A world powered by renewables is a world hungry for critical minerals,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres remarked at the launch.
“For developing countries, critical minerals are a critical opportunity to create jobs, diversify economies, and dramatically boost revenues. But only if they are managed properly,” he emphasized and added: “We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past with a systematic exploitation of developing countries reduced to the production of basic raw materials.”
The newly established Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals brings together leaders and experts from government, industry, and civil society.
It is co-chaired by Ambassador Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-Diseko of South Africa and Director-General for Energy Ditte Juul Jørgensen of the European Commission.
The panel is tasked with tackling several urgent issues including environmental impacts of mining and mineral processing; social and economic consequences for local communities; geopolitical tensions arising from mineral resource distribution.
Ambassador Mxakato-Diseko highlighted the panel's goal: “In establishing the Panel, the UN Secretary-General is commendably responding to a normative gap identified by many countries, especially developing countries, related to critical minerals and rare earths required for sustainable development and just transitions.”
By developing global guidelines and principles, the panel will guide the just transition to renewable energy sources. It seeks to balance the economic benefits of mineral extraction with the imperative to protect environments and communities, thus supporting the UN’s broader goals of sustainable development.
For the Director-General for Energy Ditte Juul Jørgensen, “the global energy goals we all agreed at COP28 require a rapidscale-up in the manufacturing and deployment of renewables globally and critical energy transition minerals.”
But even if these targets would not be reached without an increase in the supply of critical energy transition minerals, “the race to net zero cannot trample over the poor. The renewables revolution is happening – but we must guide it towards justice,” Mr. Guterres cautioned.
The Secretary-General first announced the panel establishment at COP28, where countries had agreed to triple renewable capacity by 2030.
You can find more information here: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/critical-minerals
