Alongside the UN General Assembly, the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) announced that it will be joining the Council for Critical Minerals Development in the Global South, an initiative of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), the Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis and Swaniti Global. The announcement was made at a high-level roundtable on ‘Strengthening Local Value Chains for Energy Transition Solutions in the Global South’ during the SDG7 Action Forum. The partnership aims to strengthen African governments efforts to leverage their critical mineral resources to build local value chains for energy transition technologies, thereby creating jobs and supporting industrialization. Africa possesses significant reserves of the minerals that are essential for batteries, electric vehicles and other energy transition technologies that underpin the regional and global energy transition

The roundtable will take place alongside the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 2024 convened by the Council on Critical Minerals Development in the Global South facilitated by Sustainable Energy for All, the Institute for Transportation Studies (UC Davis) and Swaniti Global, in partnership with the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It will bring together leaders from governments, industry, financing institutions and multilateral development agencies to identify the essential levers of change needed to support the development of local and regional renewable energy manufacturing capabilities, particularly in Africa. This discussion is timely as it anticipates the release of outcomes from the UNSG Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals in September 2024 and will contribute to deliberations on the implementation phase.

As countries across the Global South raise ambitions for local value creation and look to deploy various industrial policy tools, targeted efforts are needed to facilitate south-south cooperation, and deliver the data and analytics, tools and support that can inform decision making and facilitate collaboration to enable countries to have a stronger voice in the international discourse on critical minerals and renewable energy supply chain development. Given the volume of renewable energy manufacturing activity, ASEAN Member States can also explore and optimise its potential of developing a circular, green value chain with battery recycling capabilities. Held in the sideline of Indonesia International Sustainability Forum 2024, this event is co- hosted by the Council on Critical Minerals Development in the Global South and KADIN Net Zero Hub

This initiative will support equitable minerals value chain development and clean technology access for Global South countries. The Council's objectives include fostering South-South cooperation, sharing best practices, and forming bilateral and multilateral partnerships to accelerate clean energy adoption and local industry development.

This webinar will mark the announcement of a partnership between Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and Swaniti Global to build a Global South-led and -oriented platform to catalyze collaboration between Global South countries on critical minerals development.