Social and environmental licence for minerals processing in Africa

Panel discussion as part of the event Beyond extraction: Value addition for Africa’s critical minerals.
Published

September 23, 2024

What

Panel discussion

Where

Chatham House, London

Who

Stakeholders from government, policymakers, international organisations, the private sector, civil society, and academics.

Overview

Hosted by Chatham House’s Environment and Society Centre in collaboration with Climate Compatible Growth. Participants discussed the current research frontiers of critical mineral processing in Africa.

I raised three main points:

  1. There are significant environmental costs in African countries processing energy transition materials, irrespective of the reduction versus the conventional energy system;
  2. There are also significant social costs;
  3. There are myriad solutions already available to limit these costs if actually implemented.