Exploring the Transition Minerals Landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case for the Congo Basin

The global shift toward renewable energy, electric mobility, and digitalization has spurred unprecedented demand for critical minerals such as copper, cobalt, and manganese. These are minerals abundant in the Congo Basin and broader sub-Saharan Africa. These minerals are essential for technologies that power the clean energy transition, including electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels.

Yet, the current rush to secure these resources risks reproducing old patterns of exploitation—extractive systems marked by human rights violations, environmental degradation, and social inequality. In countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, mineral extraction has been linked to child labor, displacement and gender-based violence, highlighting the urgent need to rethink how the energy transition is governed.

This side event builds on a recent report examining critical minerals governance, human rights and regional cooperation. It situates the conversation within the Just Transition Work Programme at COP30, highlighting how the mineral-energy nexus links to broader debates on climate, energy, forests, and adaptation.