The Acting Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Antonio Pedro, has urged African countries to decarbonize its growth models and shift to renewable energy sources.
This, he said, will help to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, the SDGs and Africa’s Agenda 2063, the world must decarbonize its growth models and shift to renewable energy sources,
He was speaking during a panel discussion on ‘Building a regional battery mineral value chain in Africa,’ jointly organised by ECA and Afreximbank, on February 26, ahead of the 9th Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) to be held in Niamey from February 28 to March 2.
Pedro said the shift to renewable energy sources was a resource-intensive path that required greater production of a variety of minerals that are central to decarbonization.
“Africa is home to many of such minerals. The DR Congo, for example, produces more than 70% of the world’s cobalt. The DR Congo and Zambia together supply 10% of global copper while Mozambique and South Africa hold significant reserves of graphite, platinum metals, lithium and more.
“We have clear opportunities not only from the global green mineral boom but also from our domestic achievements, such as the African Continental Free-Trade Area to facilitate the development of regional value chains for these green economy products,” Pedro said.
The organisers of the session wanted to present the specifics of the lithium-ion battery initiative to a wider audience.
“In the last two decades we have seen that without the right enabling policies and incentives, commodity super-cycles come and go, leaving our countries dependent on resource extraction,” Pedro said.
He deplored the fact that about 70% of the region’s exports are unprocessed commodities, a situation that can change with the right policies that prioritise industrialization and value-addition in mining and other resource sectors.