Climate Watch: AfDB asks African nations to prioritise mineral processing during energy transition

Climate change directly affects our communities, health, and livelihoods.

Yet, media coverage often prioritises politics and business over climate-related stories, leaving crucial environment news under-reported.

Climate Watch seeks to bridge this information gap, ensuring that important climate change stories and mitigation efforts stay on your radar.

Here is a round up of last week’s climate stories:

• The African Development Bank (AfDB) has urged African countries to take strategic positions in the global energy transition by making the shift from exporting raw minerals to investing in local processing and value addition.In a statement on Sunday, Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB, spoke about Africa’s crucial role in supplying the minerals needed for clean energy technologies.

  “Africa is rich in critical minerals such as cobalt, bauxite, manganese, and vanadium. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone produces 70 percent of the world’s cobalt,” Adesina said.

  He cited the success of countries like Indonesia, China, and Chile in securing strong positions in global value chains through deliberate policy decisions.

  “Indonesia banned raw nickel exports and mandated domestic processing, boosting downstream industries. China, which controls over 80 percent of global refining capacity, used policy coordination and infrastructure investment to dominate the mineral processing industry,” he noted.

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  Adesina said Nigeria has the potential to become a major player in solar panel manufacturing due to its domestic supply of essential minerals and relatively low production costs.

  He added that unlocking this potential would require the development of a clear critical minerals industrial policy.

  To enhance Africa’s competitiveness in the global energy transition, Adesina outlined five priority areas: massive investment in energy infrastructure, development of critical minerals, clean energy-linked industrialisation, sound regulatory frameworks, and strong governance with community rights protection.

  He disclosed that the AfDB, in partnership with the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, is developing an African Green Minerals Strategy to support these initiatives.

• Wale Edun, minister of finance, has reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to operationalise the climate change fund (CCF). A statement by Mohammed Manga, the ministry’s director of information and public relations, said Edun hosted Nkiruka Madueke, director-general of the Nigeria climate change council (NCCC). The meeting, which was held in Abuja, explored ways to advance efforts to operationalise the country’s climate change fund. In her remarks, Madueke harped on unlocking the fund, which she described as under-resourced, to finance critical climate initiatives and enable regulatory functions under the Climate Change Act. Read more here.
  

• The federal government has commenced work on the second biennial transparency report (BTR2) and fourth national communication (NC4). Nkiruka Maduekwe, the director-general of the NCCC, spoke during a technical workshop held in Abuja on April 8. Maduekwe described both reports as critical tools for monitoring Nigeria’s climate progress and enhancing data-driven action. Read more here.

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• The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) says 1,249 communities in 30 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) are at high-risk of flooding. The agency added that 2,187 communities in 293 LGAs fall within the moderate flood risk states. During the unveiling of the 2025 annual flood outlook in Abuja, Joseph Utsev, minister of water resources and sanitation, said flooding remains one of the worst natural disasters in Nigeria, with climate change accelerating its frequency. Utsev noted that Abia, Benue, Lagos, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Jigawa, among others, are key states expected to experience severe flooding. Find out more here.