SEforAll and the Africa-Europe Foundation launch partnership on Critical Transition Minerals

The Africa-Europe Foundation (AEF) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) are launching a cross-continental platform to unlock cooperation on critical minerals for energy transitions.

The inception of the platform took place at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku (COP29) and has been timed in view of a series of interconnected milestones for the Africa-Europe Partnership: from the new institutional cycles of the African and European Commissions to the Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) and COP30. The initiative will also focus on transforming into action the outputs of the UN Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals.

Global climate commitments at COP29 have reinforced the increasing demand for the critical minerals needed for renewable energy, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicating an overall tripling and quadrupling of demand for critical minerals by 2030 and 2040 respectively, while the changing geopolitical landscape, following a super-year of elections, requires the Africa-Europe partnership to set up and drive responses to the interconnected crises of climate change, energy access, inflation and food insecurity.

“It is imperative that Africa and the Global South plays a central and equal role in the global supply chain of critical minerals, benefiting equally from industrial development and job creation. Africa-Europe cooperation is more critical than ever and is especially important for ensuring that local communities share the benefits. Today’s discussion is timely as the recently launched Principles and Recommendations of the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals emphasize that critical minerals development must be fostered through benefit sharing, value addition and economic diversification.” said Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, and Co-Chair for UN-Energy, while providing remarks at the partnership launch in Baku.

Paul Walton, Executive Director of the Africa-Europe Foundation, speaking at the launch, said: “Our cooperation on transition minerals will not only transform existing policy commitments into action but will equally signal a complete change of paradigm in international cooperation. It is no longer about outdated development models where Europe is proposing to help sort out African challenges and defining the supply, while Africa comes to Europe seeking pledges. Instead, it’s about a future proof and win-win partnership, it’s about smart money as well as more money, and – within this transformative space of cooperation - it’s about Africa and Europe forging a social and economic contract to ensure beneficiation at source and real change for the societies that our Partnership is set up to serve”.

Key objectives underpinning AEF and SEforAll’s partnership include:

• Guiding Africa-Europe cooperation on critical mineralsbased on data-driven insights and creating a safe space for African and European partners and multi-stakeholders to unpack the complex and sensitive issues of this partnership domain;
• Facilitating knowledge-exchange, capacity sharing and investment mobilisation, and reinforcing regional supply chains and a ‘regional approach’ that can benefit from the EU and AU’s respective experience in economic and trade integration;
• Commitment trackingto accelerate the implementation of the existing financial and political commitments of the AU-EU Partnership and facilitate enhanced policy coherence (from The Africa Mining Vision and African Industrial Development Action Plan to The EU Global Gateway and Critical Raw Materials Act);
• Challenging siloed workthrough joining-up this new Africa-Europe platform on Critical Minerals with existing AEF platforms working on issues from Illicit Financial Flows, Trade Policy and The Future of Taxation to Digital Infrastructure, Blue Economy, Energy and Carbon Markets; and
• Reinforcing the Africa-Europe Partnership at the multilateral level, with a strategic focus on driving delivery of the recommendations of the Report from the UN Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals and the adopted UN Pact for the Future.

Speakers and partners at this first convening included representatives of the Africa-Europe Foundation, the AU African Minerals Development Centre, the European Commission, the United Nations Panel on Critical Minerals, the G7 Presidency (Italian Agency for Development Cooperation), the Paris Peace Forum, the South African Institute of International Affairs (appointed to lead the ‘T20’ Think-tank of the incoming G20 Presidency) and Sustainable Energy for All.

“What needs to be changed is the partnership model,” said the Africa Minerals Development Centre Interim Director, Marit Kitaw, “Africa is rich in critical minerals while Europe has access to technology and skills. This dynamic presents a valuable opportunity for a win-win, mutually beneficial partnership”, adding that “An effective partnership will help make the key pillars of the African Mining Vision, including skills and technology, value addition, and mitigating social and environmental impacts, more successful”.

Ditte Juul-Jørgensen, Co-Chair of the UN Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals and Director-General for Energy at the European Commission, said: “We are discussing here the path forward and the key will be unlocking win-win partnerships that support investments in Africa to enhance local value addition and beneficiation during country energy transitions. This is a complex topic, fraught with history, and only with transparency and traceability can we ensure accountability, and only with accountability can we bring justice in this space of cooperation”.

This approach to win-win partnerships and local value addition was further reinforced by the representative of the G7 Presidency and Director of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, Marco Riccardo Rusconi, who underlined the importance of “the regional approach” and bringing trade into central focus to boost green industrialisation, citing as an illustration investment in the ‘Lobito Corridor’ through the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure.

Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, Chairman of Sierra Leone’s Presidential Initiative on Climate Change and Co-Chair of the Africa-Europe Foundation Energy Strategy Group, provided concluding remarks: “Through this timely partnership initiative, Europe has the opportunity to assume a more proactive role in enhancing Africa’s confidence and facilitating investments through climate finance. This partnership between Africa and Europe on energy must focus on rebuilding trust by utilising existing instruments and enhancing capacity, ensuring that African nations can fully benefit from their resources,” added that “While many promises have been made to Africa in the past, the resources have not materialised. To foster greater trust with Europe, Africa should focus on strategic investments in the renewable energy sector to beneficiate critical minerals”.

The new AEF-SEforAll Partnership on Critical Transition Minerals will underpin a series of joint actions aligned with strategic milestones in 2025, notably the Finance in Common Summit in Cape Town (February 2025), the SEforAll Forum in Bridgetown (March), the Ibrahim Governance Weekend on Financing for Africa in Marrakesh (June) and the Financing for Development International Conference in Seville (June/July), the second edition of the Africa Climate Summit (September) and the UN Climate Conference (COP30) in Belem (November 2025).
 

Resource Links

The United Nations Report on Critical Minerals: https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/report_sg_panel_on_critical_energy_transition_minerals_11_sept_2024.pdf

The ‘State-of-Africa-Europe Report’ of the Africa-Europe Foundation: https://africaeuropefoundationreport.org

The Council for Critical Minerals Development in the Global South: www.seforall.org/programmes/un-energy/South-South-Cooperation/Council-Critical-Minerals

‘Financing Africa’ Report of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation: https://mo.ibrahim.foundation/sites/default/files/2024-06/2024-forum-report.pdf

Joint Africa-Europe Report on ‘Realising the Potetnial of Carbon Markets’: https://cap-a.org/carbon-markets-report/

Lobito Corridor and the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure: https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/global-gateway/connecting-democratic-republic-congo-zambia-and-angola-global-markets-through-lobito-corridor_en
 

About the Organizations

About the Africa-Europe Foundation

The Africa-Europe Foundation is an independent platform to drive fresh policy thinking and unlock untapped cooperation between Africa and Europe. Through our multi-stakeholder ’Strategy Groups’ we pioneer action research, track/facilitate AU-EU finance commitments and catalyse joint initiatives in domains from Sustainable Finance and Global Health to Energy, Agri-Food Systems, Blue Economy and Digital Infrastructure. For more information: www.africaeuropefoundation.org

About Sustainable Energy for All

Sustainable Energy for All is an independent organization, hosted by UNOPS, with a global mandate to accelerate progress on the energy transition in emerging and developing countries. We work at the intersection of energy, climate, and development. We collaborate with governments and partners worldwide to end energy poverty, accelerate the deployment of renewable energy solutions, and combat climate change.