Africa holds roughly 30 of the world's green-transition minerals, which include metals like cobalt, lithium, platinum, and copper. Yet by exporting them largely unprocessed, the continent forfeits the opportunity to integrate more deeply into the global supply chains powering green technologies - solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, hydrogen systems, and battery storage. Boosting local processing and capturing more value at home was a major focus of deliberations at the B20 meetings in Johannesburg.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa, South Africa's electricity and energy minister, told delegates that Africa must take greater strategic control of its "natural advantages" in critical minerals to drive the energy transition on its own terms.
"We have everything that is required for us to be able to support the decarbonisation agenda," he said during a fireside chat. "We have significant mineral endowments, significant renewable energy endowment with regard to solar and wind potential along the coastlines, and significant amounts of real estate in terms of uninhabited land with no other competing economic activities."