Africa’s Copperbelt finds itself in the cross hairs of geopolitical competition. At the heart of has been the global transition to a green and digitised economy and the emergence of China as a significant player. The unique concentration of global cobalt reserves in the region covering the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia’s Copperbelt’s (Burgess 2010) is increasingly seen as a risk for supply and ethical sourcing for those industries reliant on the mineral. It is this, plus the heightened trade competition between the United States of America and China whose technology industries dominate that is lending a geopolitical slant to cobalt. This talk presents on these dynamics from an Africa regional and continental perspective, and on the potential implications of this for a just green transition.
As we are following the current restrictions and recommendations given by the Swedish government and FHM, the maximum amount of participators of this lecture will be 50 people.
