Dr Tracy Ledger is PARI’s Just Transition Programme Lead. She was a panellist at the Embassy of Brazil in South Africa on 30 April 2025, to engage in the discussion, Critical Minerals: Brazil-South Africa Dialogues for a Just Transition. The discussion was part of the official side programming of the Think20 Africa Conference.
“Both countries hold significant reserves of minerals used in the production of equipment related to the energy transition, such as chromium and manganese (South Africa) and bauxite, grafite, nickel and rare earths (Brazil). The extraction of these resources must not replicate the historical extractivist patterns of raw material production and export in these countries—marked by high environmental impacts, little to no industrial processing, and limited socioeconomic returns.
To avoid this, a development strategy is needed with a focus on building value chains around these resources, ensuring that their extraction generates tangible socioeconomic benefits for the societies of both countries.
This approach aligns with the Belém Consensus – a proposal by the E+ Energy Transition Institute advocating for the relocation of key stages of global industrial production to strategic geographies with access to renewable energy sources and productive capacity. This process helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promotes a more equitable distribution of the social and economic benefits of industrialization worldwide.”
