"UN's green mineral guide: Africa's untapped potential needs more", 12 September 2024

"This week, the United Nations took an important step when it published global principles to guide the effort for fairness and benefit-sharing in the scramble for transition minerals - the materials essential for building clean energy technologies like batteries, solar panels, and electric vehicles.

As the world accelerates toward a greener future, the countries sitting on these mineral deposits must see a fair share of benefits...

It is particularly reassuring to see the principles establish a High-Level Expert Advisory Group that will be tasked with accelerating greater benefit-sharing, value addition and economic diversification through equitable trade, investment, finance, and taxation.

Now we need to put these words into action. Many mineral-rich countries, particularly in Africa, continue to face structural barriers that prevent them from fully benefiting from their resources.

Without addressing these barriers, we risk repeating the age-old pattern of extraction with little return thereby perpetuating the resource curse that has affected these resource-rich countries...

Africa holds over 40% of the world’s reserves of transition minerals like cobalt, lithium, and copper. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alone accounts for 60% of the world’s cobalt, which is critical for the batteries powering electric vehicles.

The continent should be at the forefront of the energy transition, not just as a supplier of raw materials but as a key player in the entire value chain....

New research from Publish What You Pay, released last week, highlights just how much potential is being left on the table. With the right policies to keep more of the processing and manufacturing on the continent, Africa could boost its GDP by at least $24 billion a year and create 2.3 million jobs.

But this is about more than economic growth. Africa’s mineral wealth also holds the key to solving the continent’s energy crisis, with 600 million Africans currently lacking access to electricity. By using its own resources to build clean energy infrastructure, Africa could achieve energy sovereignty and development...

The world needs Africa’s minerals, but it’s time for Africa to benefit from them too. If we’re serious about creating a just energy transition, we need to address the systems that have historically kept wealth and power in the hands of a few.

The U.N. principles are a step in the right direction, and true equity will only come when global leaders commit to changing the rules of the game."