COP30 underscored a simple truth: clean energy relies on a rapid scale-up of critical minerals. Yet without urgent improvements and meaningful investment in sustainable mining, developing economies will continue to bear the environmental and social costs of a transition.
Alastair Bovim, CEO of Insight Terra, says this moment represents a turning point for the global climate agenda. “Don’t be fooled, the clean energy transition runs on minerals, and many of the world’s most essential minerals are mined in Africa. But unless sustainable mining practices scale at the same pace as mineral demand, the transition will deepen inequality instead of delivering climate justice,” he says. Without this, it is just kicking the problem down the road and into someone else’s backyard – ours. And that is not sustainable or clean.
According to the International Energy Agency, global demand for critical minerals will quadruple by 2040, with some materials required to expand thirtyfold. For the first time, COP30 draft texts formally acknowledged the role of mineral governance in achieving the Paris Agreement, highlighting the social and environmental risks linked to the rapid expansion of copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth mining. This inclusion marks a significant shift from previous UNFCCC negotiations, where mineral extraction was largely absent from formal decision-making tracks.
While negotiations in Belém stopped short of a binding fossil-fuel phase-down roadmap, proceedings placed mineral supply chains firmly on the agenda, signalling that the way we source these minerals will increasingly determine the integrity of the global transition.
The clean energy transition starts in a mine
A recent campaign by global engineering group Sandvik, illustrated this point powerfully. Its eNimon installation stripped an electric vehicle of all metals and mineral components, revealing a non-functional shell.
Bovim says the message resonates far beyond the mining sector. “Every electric vehicle, solar panel, and wind turbine starts with extraction. The question is not whether we mine, but how we mine and who pays the price when mining goes wrong,” he says.
What is at stake if mining does not clean up its act?
Across Africa’s mining regions, communities closest to extraction sites continue to face disproportionately high risks, particularly where monitoring is weak or inconsistent. Those risks include:
- Water contamination and acidification that jeopardise drinking water, agriculture and livestock.
- Tailings dam and geotechnical failures, including this year’s catastrophic incidents in Zambia and the DRC.
- Airborne pollutants, including dust and heavy metals harmful to human health.
- Displacement and long-term loss of livelihood.
- Greater climate vulnerability as extreme rainfall increases infrastructure strain.
For example, independent findings showed that the February partial tailings dam collapse near Kitwe in Zambia may have released 1.5 million t of toxic waste. The spill, enough to fill over 400 Olympic pools, discharged acid-bearing material into the Mwambashi River before flowing downstream into the Kafue River system, affecting those in the Kitwe region – the country’s second most populous urban region. Heavy metals remain a persistent threat to residents living near the most affected zone.
Similarly, the dam failure earlier this month at a cobalt and copper mine in the DRC, both key transition minerals, has once again highlighted how local communities absorb the environmental shocks of extraction while the global energy transition benefits from the output.
“When water, land and livelihoods are affected, the impact is immediate and multigenerational. These events show exactly what is at stake if sustainable mining does not keep pace with mineral demand,” Bovim says.
Progress is happening, but voluntary frameworks are not enough
The ICMM’s latest progress report on the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) shows encouraging improvements in governance among major operators. However, GISTM remains voluntary and self-assessed, and large parts of the sector, especially smaller and mid-tier operations, remain outside the framework.
“Frameworks like GISTM and the G20’s Critical Minerals Framework are essential foundations, but they need to be supported by real-world implementation. That begins with data,” Bovim says.
Real-time monitoring is the missing link
Bovim argues data and AI can help operators stay ahead of the curve. Real-time monitoring and data driven decision making must form the backbone of sustainable mining.
Many mines have static monitoring technologies in place, but to truly harness the potential of this data, it must integrate across all available sources, such as satellite imagery, IoT sensor networks, plant systems, ground-based monitoring instruments, as well as publicly available data. Platforms like Insight Terra can ingest this multisource data in real-time for multi-variate analysis and send trigger alerts should proactive action be required. This provides continuous visibility into water levels, water quality, tailings integrity, and land stability.
Sustainability is not a once-a-year paper exercise for board reports. Mines are dynamic and their monitoring must be dynamic and proactive too. “Without real-time monitoring, mines or indeed any critical infrastructure cannot demonstrate compliance, regulators cannot intervene early, and communities remain in the dark. Environmental intelligence is the foundation of responsible extraction,” he says.
Water monitoring is especially critical, given rising water stress across mining regions and the cross-sectoral impacts of contaminated or mismanaged water. “Whether in mining, agriculture, or energy, water is at the centre of climate resilience. Mining companies need to treat water as a strategic resource, not a by-product,” Bovim notes.
A moment for African leadership
Africa holds some of the world’s most essential transition minerals. With global frameworks gaining attention but implementation lagging, the continent has an opportunity to shape a new model of sustainable extraction – one that uses transparency, monitoring, and community protection as strategic advantages rather than compliance burdens.
“There is a real opportunity for Africa to lead the world in what sustainable mining should look like. If developing communities are asked to shoulder the risks of the clean energy transition, they deserve the highest standards of safety, accountability and remediation. That is the only way to ensure the transition is both clean and just,” Bovim concludes.