Climate action: Africa’s ambition is to produce electric vehicles

By Kingsley Ighobor

The Acting Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Antonio Pedro, attended the High-Level Political Forum at the UN headquarters in New York in July. The forum focused on post-pandemic recovery and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor interviewed Pedro on various aspects of Africa's development.

Ighobor: How would you respond to those who argue against the idea of Africa pursuing rapid green industrialisation?

Pedro: We have the assets to pursue a green industrialisation strategy.

First, we are starting from a baseline where we are not industrialised, making the catch-up exercise and the pursuit of an industrial 4.0, 4.4, or 5.0 a natural pathway for us.

Second, unlike other jurisdictions burdened with carbon-intensive production systems, we don't have such issues. So, we can start afresh from a clean slate and utilise our resources in an environmentally conscious manner.

We have the endowments for green industrialisation. For example, our major rivers — from the Congo to the Nile, Zambezi, Limpopo, and others — hold tremendous potential for generating significant amounts of clean energy.

We have 60% or so — of course, we need to evaluate this better — of the radiation potential in the world. Currently, we only capture about 2.5% of our renewable energy potential. The pursuit of massive deployment of solar energy is possible.

Furthermore, our reserves of hydrogen which, as you know, is an alternative energy source for the aviation sector, offer a sustainable solution for the future.

We have the critical green minerals for electrifying transport systems and facilitating the massive deployment of solar and wind energy. Gone should be the days of small-scale boutique solar projects; we can now have solar power plants in excess of 2000 megawatts, which can power cities and industries. So, the scale and ambition, therefore, can be much higher.

But we need to mobilise financing accordingly.

Ighobor: We often hear about the abundant natural resources that Africa possesses. However, we have struggled to fully exploit them to the extent that they substantially benefit countries on the continent. Is there a paradigm shift this time?

Pedro: Absolutely. In 2009, we adopted the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) as the blueprint for the extractive sector, which has been underpinned by the effort to promote greater value addition, resource-based industrialisation, and linkages between the extractive sector and the rest of the economy.

The extractive sector in Africa is an enclave without those linkages. But since the adoption of the AMV, there's been progress, although not significant progress, because the share of tradables in our total exports remains minimal. We essentially continue to export raw materials.

In November 2021, we organised the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Africa Business Forum to articulate the pathways for developing the battery and electric vehicle value chain. A BloombergNef study demonstrated that the production of battery precursors, the chemicals used in batteries, was three times cheaper in the DRC than in China and India and two times cheaper than in Poland. And with very positive emission scores.

Since then, a pre-feasibility study is set to be completed in August this year (2023), which will enable us to transition from a market valued at $11 billion (R211bn), which is mining, to a market of $271bn, which is the battery precursors production.

The ambition, of course, is to produce electric vehicles on the continent, tapping into a global market projected to be $7.7 trillion by 2025 and $46trl by 2050. Our multilateral development banks are supporting this initiative through the DRC- Zambia trans-boundary Special Economic Zone.

Within this zone, there is a plan to establish battery plants, solar panel plants, and other essential components, creating a complete ecosystem. The batteries will enable further deployment of solar energy on the continent to power the green industrialization point mentioned earlier.

Ighobor: Is there a concern that the low-carbon transition in developed countries could potentially harm Least Developed Countries (LDCs), of which 33 are in Africa, due to big companies in the West gradually depending less on Africa's primary products as they shift to low-carbon practices?

The road to achieving net-zero targets is going to be resource intensive. For certain minerals, we will need 500 times more than we are currently producing.

However, we should never anchor our development trajectory on the export of raw materials. Instead, we must focus on projects like the one in DRC and Zambia, which, by the way, will not only benefit the DRC and Zambia because you need other minerals to be able to have a functional battery and electric vehicle value chain.

You need graphite from Mozambique, Tanzania, and Madagascar. You need the nickel from South Africa, Botswana, and Madagascar. You need the manganese from Gabon and South Africa. You need phosphate from Morocco. You need copper from Zambia and DRC.

So, it is an African-wide regional value chain.

Our study suggests we will need about $500 billion of investments in transport and service infrastructure, including the acquisition of about two million trucks to facilitate the flow of goods and services under the African Continental Free Trade Area framework.

Therefore, we've gone beyond our initial objective, which was to localise the battery precursors’ value chain. Now, our ambition is to produce electric vehicles on the continent, starting with the introduction of mini-buses for our public transport systems.

If we electrify our transport systems, we'll be contributing to reducing emissions and advancing our net-zero targets. It will also reduce the continent’s excessive dependence on the export of raw materials.