Africa’s Critical Minerals: From Raw Exports to Green Industrial Powerhouse – Key Outcomes of Africa Climate Summit 2025

As the world races toward net-zero emissions, Africa controls over 30% of the planet’s critical minerals (cobalt, lithium, manganese, graphite and rare earth elements) essential for batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Yet, decades of raw material exports have delivered limited prosperity to the continent.

At the Africa Climate Summit 2025, held under the theme “Accelerating renewable energy, nature-based solutions, e-mobility, and scaling up climate finance,” African leaders, policymakers and industry experts issued a strong call to break this cycle and capture greater value from the global green transition.

UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Executive Secretary, Claver Gatete, warned against repeating historical exploitative patterns:

“We cannot afford to export raw minerals while others industrialise and create jobs. Africa must process, refine and manufacture on its own soil to drive sustainable growth and employment for our people.”

Key resolutions and proposals emerging from the Summit include:

– Urgent shift from raw mineral exports to local processing, value addition and component manufacturing within Africa

– Full leveraging of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to build integrated regional value chains and achieve economies of scale

– Establishment of an African Critical Minerals Alliance to harmonise regulations, strengthen collective bargaining power and negotiate fairer global trade terms

– Scaling up flagship initiatives such as the ECA–Afreximbank Battery and Electric Vehicle (BEV) value chain project in DRC and Zambia, which is creating special economic zones for battery precursors and components

– Renewed demands for international climate finance, debt relief, technology transfer and private-sector investment to close Africa’s climate funding gap and build critical infrastructure

The Summit concluded with the adoption of the Addis Ababa Declaration, committing African nations to place equity, sustainability and local development at the centre of critical mineral strategies.

The continent now stands at a pivotal moment: Africa possesses the resources that will power the global clean energy revolution. Through unity, strategic industrialisation and deliberate value addition, these minerals can finally become the foundation for broad-based prosperity rather than another chapter of resource extraction without benefit.