The 35 × 35 Electrification Target is a Minerals Target Too

On Day Four of COP31 in Antalya, electrification is one of the biggest conversations. But while the focus is on the target, there's an important aspect that is currently being overlooked—the link with critical minerals. 

Patrick Stephenson, Ghana Country Manager at NRGI says: 

"The COP31 presidency wants electricity to meet 35% of the world's energy use by 2035, and we are hearing that the EU and others are pushing to make that clean electrification. For now, we understand this is likely to be a voluntary target, and around 20 countries are preparing to make public commitments.  

But too few people are asking what this target depends on. The answer is minerals.

Clean electricity is mineral-hungry. Every grid, battery and solar panel depends on copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.

Many of these minerals come from developing countries. So the question is whether people in those countries can truly, and fairly, benefit from the wealth below their soil, or if they will once again bear the costs of extraction while others capture the value.

At COP30, minerals entered the negotiations for the first time. Then they were stripped from the final text. We can't let that happen again.

So we're calling for three things. First, COP31's electrification outcomes should recognize that the target depends on critical minerals. Second, the new Just Transition Mechanism should be designed to support fair, transparent mineral value chains in producer countries. And third, all of this should lay the groundwork for a minerals compact at COP32 in Addis Ababa, as the Chair of the African Group of Negotiators has called for.

Electrification can be a driver for just energy transitions in mineral-rich developing countries. But that won't happen by accident. Let's recognize that and work to ensure that this mineral boom is different to those of the past."