The push for solar, wind, batteries, and EVs depends on minerals like copper, lithium, and cobalt, but extracting and processing them can carry heavy environmental and social costs. This article from Tanzania's Daily News argues that a truly green transition must address the full lifecycle of clean tech, not just the use phase. It highlights how Africa, despite holding key mineral reserves, risks losing out if it only exports raw materials instead of building local processing and manufacturing capacity. Development finance institutions get a central role in the piece: they should fund entire value chains, use blended finance to de-risk private investment, and enforce ESG standards. The article also notes China's dominance in solar panel production and battery supply chains, and warns against replacing fossil fuel dependence with new dependencies on concentrated supply chains. For anyone tracking carbon markets or climate policy, this is a useful reminder that emissions accounting stops being credible when pollution just moves to another country.
