Addis Ababa, 10 September 2025 (ECA) - The Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete has called for the continent to unite and strategically leverage its vast reserves of critical green minerals, avoid the exploitative patterns of the past and fuel its own industrial transformation. Africa’s possession of over 30% of the world’s minerals essential for clean energy technologies—like cobalt, lithium, and copper—places it “at the very heart of the global energy transition,” he said and warned that without a coordinated diplomatic strategy, Africa will remain a mere supplier of raw materials for the global energy transition, missing a historic opportunity for industrialization.
Speaking at a high-level dialogue themed, Towards an African Position on Critical Green Minerals Diplomacy during the Africam Climate Summit in Addis Ababa, Mr. Gatete argued the Continent should not be reduced to a raw material supplier. Africa must seize the moment to “build industries, create jobs, and promote inclusive growth.”
“Without a coordinated African stance, the risk is real: extractive models will persist, environmental degradation will deepen, and inequities in value distribution will widen. But with unity, Africa can leverage its mineral wealth to drive industrialization, advance regional value chains and power a just energy transition that leaves no one behind.”
Organized by the ECA, the event, titled “Towards an African Position on Critical Green Minerals Diplomacy,” brought together stakeholders in the climate change arena attending the Summit to discuss a cohesive continental strategy.
Mr. Gatete outlined a four-pillar framework to guide this strategy, emphasizing that Africa has “no choice but to be strategic.”
He argued against exporting raw minerals and called for building continental capacity to process, refine, and manufacture components like batteries within Africa. He pointed to the ECA and Afreximbank’s joint Battery and Electric Vehicle value chain initiative, starting in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, as a concrete example of this shift “from resource extraction to technological innovation and prioritization of local value addition.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), highlighted Gatete, is a critical platform to develop integrated regional value chains, reduce external dependence, and unlock economies of scale.
He also stressed that future partnerships must be grounded in “fairness and mutual benefit,” with flows of financing and technology that respect African sovereignty and serve its development priorities, saying that “the energy transition cannot be just for the world and unjust for Africa,”. He argued that global dependence on African minerals for decarbonization must be met with reciprocal benefits for the continent, including industrial growth and climate resilience.
“This dialogue is not just about minerals,” Gatete stated. “It is about shaping a narrative where Africa is empowered, not exploited; where we are co-architects, and not bystanders, in the global green transition.”
Speakers and panellists included representatives from government, Regional Economic Communities, Private Sector, Civil Society and Foundations.
They echoed the need for strengthening local content, upskilling African players, and creating development linkages to benefit communities. They emphasised the need to strengthen and own data on the sector and leverage deep research. They also emphasised that countries must rely first and foremost on internal capacity and audacity because the struggle is about Africa’s sovereign future. “Our strength lies in our collective bargaining power, and we must safeguard our minerals, data, land and other resources such as water,” noted the panellists.
The ECA pledged its full support to member states in developing the technical expertise and policy frameworks needed to strengthen Africa’s negotiating position on the global stage.
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