Mohamed Lamine SIDIBE

Member of Environmental Security Commission at Werra Association. Email: mlsidibe03@gmail.com

Abstract

The covid-19 pandemic has given a boost to the energy transition process in developed and emerging countries. Europe through its famous Green Deal plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In the United States, it is the arrival of the Democrats in business that is once again triggering the decarbonization of the American economy while China through its 14th five-year plan is supplanting the other regions of the world in this matter. Indeed, critical materials and rare earth essential to initiate the transition to low-carbon technologies are becoming both a strategic and geopolitical issue that is now being played out on African soil in order to have a grip on the mineral resources essential for the energy transition and disruptive innovation in the countries mentioned. The objective of my presentation is to draw a parallel between the decarbonization policies of advanced economies and their impacts on critical natural resources in the Sub-Saharan African region. It will also highlight the strategic and geopolitical approach of each player, in particular American, Chinese and European, in the acquisition of these materials on the continent in order to begin their transitions to green energies.

Keywords: carbon technologies, decarbonization, Africa, green energies, energy transition