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STORY: UN / ENERGY TRANSITION MINERALS
TRT: 02:22
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 04 NOVEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters
04 NOVEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We are in the midst of a quiet revolution. The way we power our economies and societies is changing. Renewables have never been cheaper or more accessible, and the acceleration in their roll-out is staggering but uneven. There is a danger that the clean energy transition could reproduce and amplify inequalities of the past: With developing countries – rich in the renewables critical to the transition - banished to the bottom of those value chains, their people are exploited, and their environment in jeopardy as others grow wealthy on their resources.”
4. Wide shot, conference room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The Panel’s report identifies ways governments, industry, and the United Nations can work to embed justice and equity in critical energy transition mineral value chains and ensures that they spur sustainable development, respect people, protect the environment, and power prosperity in resource-rich developing countries. It outlines seven guiding principles that prioritize human rights, environmental protection, and inclusive development while also insisting on responsible trade and investment.”
6. Wide shot, conference room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, South Africa:
“These minerals are so essential to the transition of the world to a low carbon economy, that it's important that there’s understanding amongst member states, there’s understanding among countries that are producing and endowed with these minerals and countries that consume these minerals that tend to be very strong. But, above all, there is need for cooperation and understanding and trust between big powers.”
8. Wide shot, conference room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, South Africa:
“This is an area where one country cannot benefit alone to the detriment of other countries. We either all do something to address climate change together or we don’t, and we sink together. We either act together to save the world and address climate change, or we don't together, and we perish. And history will not be kind on us.”
10. Wide shot, conference room
Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed today (4 Nov) said, “there is a danger that the clean energy transition could reproduce and amplify inequalities of the past: With developing countries – rich in the renewables critical to the transition - banished to the bottom of those value chains, their people are exploited, and their environment in jeopardy as others grow wealthy on their resources.”
Presenting the report of the Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, Mohammed said, “we are in the midst of a quiet revolution. The way we power our economies and societies is changing. Renewables have never been cheaper or more accessible, and the acceleration in their roll-out is staggering but uneven.”
Mohammed said, “the Panel’s report identifies ways governments, industry, and the United Nations can work to embed justice and equity in critical energy transition mineral value chains and ensures that they spur sustainable development, respect people, protect the environment, and power prosperity in resource-rich developing countries.”
She said the report, “outlines seven guiding principles that prioritize human rights, environmental protection, and inclusive development while also insisting on responsible trade and investment.”
One of the Panel’s Co-chairs, Ambassador Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko of South Africa, said, “these minerals are so essential to the transition of the world to a low carbon economy, that it's important that there’s understanding amongst member states, there’s understanding among countries that are producing and endowed with these minerals and countries that consume these minerals that tend to be very strong.”
Above all, Mxakato-Diseko said, there is need for cooperation and understanding and trust between big powers.”
The South African Ambassador said, “this is an area where one country cannot benefit alone to the detriment of other countries. We either all do something to address climate change together or we don't, and we sink together. We either act together to save the world and address climate change, or we don't together, and we perish. And history will not be kind on us.”
The report indicates that effective climate action and the global deployment of renewable energy technologies relies on the sufficient, reliable and affordable supply of critical energy transition minerals (CETMs). For the energy transition to be just, these minerals must be extracted, processed, transformed and recycled sustainably and equitably.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), reaching net-zero globally by 2050 would require the demand for CETMs to increase three and a half times by 2030, with even steeper demand for key commodities such as lithium (8 times), graphite (7 times), and nickel (7 times).
The report states that countries with large reserves of CETMs could, with careful action-orientated planning, have an opportunity to transform economies, create green jobs, and foster sustainable local, regional and global development, especially for developing countries and communities.
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