Key Takeaways:
Despite collective commitment at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels and keep the target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C by 2030, the Global South and the Global North face different challenges and therefore have different policy implementation priorities.
From an industrial, economic, trade, and global power perspective, the EU and Sub-Saharan Africa also operate at different ends of the spectrum, such that, by 2022, while the EU represented 14.5% of the world’s GDP, Africa made up 33 of the world’s 46 least developed countries, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Factors impeding significant investment in initiatives include a lack of public financial resources to fund infrastructure, which in turn would pave the way for private sector finance.
The geopolitics of critical raw materials manifests through DFIs, loans, and bilateral and multilateral programmes.
Poor management of state-owned enterprises in the extractives and energy sector is a common thread across countries and could undermine progress related to national transition plans.
Private-sector investments and partnerships, as seen with cobalt in the DRC and manganese in Ghana, are vital for mineral beneficiation, but for this to happen, both parties must perceive a win-win.
The complete text is available for download in English and in French as a PDF.
