INTERVIEW // SUSTAINABILITY: CRITICAL MINERALS
As demand for critical minerals accelerates, the global economy faces a defining test of equity and cooperation. Shared principles must place human rights, transparency and fairness at the heart of mineral value chains Ensuring a just transition for critical minerals
Why are critical energy transition min- erals important in fostering a just energy transition? Critical minerals are at the core of our lives today, including adjusting or responding to climate change. You and I are talking over Zoom. We saw during Covid-19 how education and health care relied on online engagement. So much today relies on artificial intelligence, which is a very large consumer of crit- ical minerals. So the topic for the G20 acquires broad, urgent dimensions in addressing climate change and achieving a just transition. Indeed it’s at the core of geopolitical contestations, which we tried to address in the report of the Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals. Either coun- tries work together and swim together, or they sink together. Unhealthy compe- tition may constrain the global economy, and will affect global peace and stability. There are two facets to climate change. One is the need to mitigate carbon emis- sions, finding energy sources that do not significantly contribute to emissions. The other is in relation to developing coun- tries, which produce most of the critical minerals. That provides them the oppor- tunity for revenue to fast track their development. But previous mining booms have left developing countries’ econo- mies hollowed out and distorted. Critical minerals must not repeat that cycle of impoverishment. So how can they benefit in ways that do not worsen the problem of climate change? It’s a complex problem in relation to a just transition. When I was ambassador at large on climate change working on the Paris Agreement, building on the earlier negotiations at Durban, labour unions were worried that actions would affect the rights to have a decent job, to organise and to a living wage. We put their lan- guage as is into the preamble of the Paris Agreement. I’m very sensitive to the needs of the workers, especially with many being dislocated by technologies driven by critical minerals. We proposed seven principles that are voluntary but in fact are anchored in existing legally binding instruments that all the member states have signed on to. We framed them as guardrails. The first is that respect for all human rights must be What were the panel’s main recommendations?
Interview with Nozipho J. Mxakato-Diseko, former co-chair, Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals
100 // G20 SOUTH AFRICA: THE JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT 2025
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