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 African 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. (Press release)