The Paris Agreement and its impact on Africa.
Demand for Cobalt is set to increase drastically, driven by the need for alternative energy sources. The Paris Agreement aims to cut CO2 emissions and provide financial support to poorer countries to address climate change, but there are counterarguments
The Paris Agreement and its impact on Africa.
The global demand for Cobalt will increase to about 66% by 2025. This is mainly due to the call for alternative sources of energy and the development of electric-powered automobiles, computers, and the mobile phone industries. The growth in electric vehicles and the mobile phone industry is expected to increase to more than double by 2026. These growths are expected to push the cobalt prices up.
All this will be thanks to the Paris Agreement to cut down on CO2 emissions by the global economic powers to achieve a temperature of 1.5-degree census. Under this agreement, each country must determine, plan, and regularly report on the contribution that it undertakes to mitigate global warming. For industrialized nations, this contribution will include cutting carbon emissions but more importantly, being able to make provision for up to $100 billion by 2025 and an agreement to push that amount even upwards to support poorer countries deal with environmental issues and climate change.
While all this sounds good for the development of the environment and the economies of Africa and other underdeveloped nations, I will beg to disagree with the Paris Agreement. I will make my argument with several points as listed therein.
1. Cobalt exploration and deforestation:
With the increased demand for cobalt and other minerals to power the ambitious electronic industry, there will be a surge in cobalt and other minerals, pushing more mining companies to the Congo basin. Countries like The Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, two of the African richest countries in terms of cobalt deposits will have to surrender most of their rich ecosystems to mining. This, in an effort to catch up with increased prices and balance of trade. Botanists will tell you better, it takes a hundred years for a single tree in the rainforest to achieve maturity. The Paris Agreement sure has not taken note of this into consideration.
2. Waste and Dumping:
The electronic car and mobile phone industry is expected to grow in size and value. The mobile phone industry is a fast-growing industry. The electronic car industry has been greatly welcomed as well. This sector was valued at about $11 million in 2017 but is expected to grow to about $560 million by 2025. The success of these industries lies solely in battery life. Again it can be well agreed that all it will take to achieve this lies beneath the African soil. The developed (Advanced) economies in their effort to catch up with technology will be dumping their waste in Africa (non-electronic powered vehicles, etc.). This is a trend we have seen grow and is bound to continue.
3. Increased Imperialism:
There is a myth about specialization and division of labour as propagated by Adam Smith. This theory has turned out to be the foundation of Capitalism and imperialism. With The Paris Agreement pushing Countries to cut carbon emissions and report on emission levels, the advanced economies are in a better place to make even more gains on their existing and future technologies in industrialization. Africa is therefore positioned in the global economic food chain not as a producer of primary products for the new environmental economy but as a provider of the mining field. There is no sense of specialization here as 99% of these mining companies are from the conceptual West and China. We see here China’s push to support the Paris Agreement and its influence on African economies.
4. Chemical and other pollution: I cannot overemphasize the effect of pollution on the local environment when we talk about the mining industry.
5. Conflicts and wars:
We see the devastating effects of conflicts all across Africa, from the rich mining Katanga region in the Congos to Somilia (with a huge deposit of Uranium) and more recently the Southern Cameroon conflict. In all these conflicts, there is one similarity, these regions are very rich in mineral deposits.
6. Corruption:
It all boils down to this. The big corporations have infiltrated every government and every sector in most of these African countries. Increasing prices for minimal like cobalt will mean more of these companies moving into Africa to get their own lion's share. Transparency International Corruption Index places countries like Somalia, DRC, and Cameroon as the most corrupt. With increased mining activities within the continent, corruption will be visible in almost every sector of government.
I, therefore, think that before African countries start celebrating the fact that the Paris Agreement makes provision for advanced economies to support developing countries to combat climate change, we will need to step back and sit on the drawing board to determine the way forward for African industrialization. There is no easy solution for underdeveloped countries, to bridge the development gap. So we should not celebrate solutions and aid coming from outsiders. The world as we know it is a global competition, every country is always trying to gain a competitive edge. Why then do we believe aids and solutions coming from our competitors are solutions to our problem?
By: Achiri Emmanuel Azong.
Source LinkedIn.