Executive Summary

Africa’s critical minerals endowment is indispensable to the clean-energy transition; yet, current supply chain governance, trade rules, and verification regimes keep most value, decision-making power, and data control outside the continent. A G20 cooperation agenda should therefore move beyond security of supply to rule-sharing that incorporates African institutions directly into global standard-setting, traceability, and certification. Practically, decision-making for African regulators in EU and OECD working groups must be prioritised.

For green industrialisation in Africa, the G20 must catalyse a shift from exports to beneficiation, precursors, and component manufacturing by aligning finance with the African Green Minerals Strategy (AGMS) and the AfCFTA regional value chains.

Priority actions include a G20-Africa Green Minerals Investment window, co-governed by Afreximbank, AfDB, AFC, and DBSA, that proposes first-loss guarantees for cross-border processing, a compliance cost-sharing facility for ESG and traceability audits, and FX hedging and currency-swap tools. Corridor-level governance (Lobito, North–South, Maputo) should be advanced through harmonised axle-load standards, a single-window customs system, and corridor regulators with real authority over scheduling, safety, and dispute resolution. Importantly, this should be directly linked to midstream plants for renewable energy to cut emissions and costs.

Trade policy under G20 cooperation should tackle tariff escalation on processed goods, promote plurilateral arrangements on EV and battery rules compatible with WTO norms, and institutionalise policy pre-notification to reduce volatility from export bans and quotas.

At its core is a human-centred approach to sustainable development. As such, community rights and ESG performance remain a key requirement, particularly in fostering FPIC practices, contract and payment transparency, credible grievance mechanisms, and circular-economy requirements must be incorporated in all G20-related deals. South Africa’s G20 presidency can anchor a G20–Africa Framework on Mineral Governance that ties these elements together, co-authored standards, investable corridors, shared verification systems, and people-centred protections. This is to enable a Just Energy Transition that delivers both global resilience and African prosperity.