The United Nations has launched a new support mechanism to help Nigeria and five other resource-rich developing countries build sustainable and responsible value chains for critical energy transition minerals.
Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, announced the
Country Support Mechanism on Critical Energy Transition Minerals on Wednesday
in New York.
Nigeria, Guinea, Indonesia, Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe
will be the first countries to receive dedicated support under the initiative.
Guterres said the mechanism would help ensure that countries
supplying minerals needed for the global energy transition benefit from their
resources.
“The countries that hold the critical minerals powering the
energy transition must be the first to benefit from them,” he said.
“With Guinea, Indonesia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and
Zimbabwe as our first partners, the Country Support Mechanism puts equity and
justice into practice – to turn mineral wealth into jobs and prosperity at
home.”
Critical minerals such as lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt
and rare earth elements are key components of clean energy technologies,
including electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and wind turbines.
The UN said demand for critical minerals is expected to
nearly triple by 2030 as countries shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy
and pursue net-zero emissions.
The UN said rising demand could provide resource-rich
developing countries with opportunities to diversify their economies, expand
local value addition and industrialise while creating jobs.
However, the UN warned that weak governance and
irresponsible extraction could leave resource-rich communities bearing
environmental and human costs without receiving significant economic benefits.
The new mechanism is expected to provide coordinated
technical and capacity-building support to help the six countries address these
challenges.
Led by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN
Development Coordination Office, the mechanism will draw on expertise across
the UN system and work with countries through UN resident offices.
Support will focus on governance, value addition, industrial
development, environmental protection and human rights safeguards.
Alexander de Croo, UNDP administrator, said critical
minerals could help countries diversify and transform their economies if value
creation, environmental protection and good governance were pursued together.
Inger Andersen, UN Environment Programme executive director,
said the agency would support efforts to protect environmental integrity,
promote circularity and strengthen livelihoods.
Pedro Manuel Moreno, deputy secretary-general and acting
secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, said the
initiative would help resource-rich developing countries move beyond being
raw-material exporters.
“For too long, the global economy has left resource-rich
developing countries as raw material exporters rather than industrial
partners,” Moreno said.
The mechanism is part of the broader work of the UN Task
Force on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, which is co-led by UNDP, UNCTAD
and UNEP.
The task force is coordinating UN efforts to implement
recommendations from Guterres’ Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals and
help countries use their mineral resources to support sustainable development
and a just energy transition.
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