Climate finance, ESG and critical mineral infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa Developmental de-risking or green financial extractivism?

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🔬研究者:The paper provides a conceptual framework (two-pathway model) for analyzing climate finance and ESG impacts on mineral infrastructure, useful for scholars in political economy, development studies, and sustainable finance.

🏛政策担当者:Policymakers in resource-rich developing countries and international development agencies should consider the proposed policy levers (local content, fiscal incentives, transparency, community agreements) to ensure climate finance supports transformative development.

The global transition to low-carbon energy systems has heightened the strategic importance of critical minerals and increased Sub-Saharan Africa’s developmental and geopolitical relevance. Despite this, the region’s economies continue to face challenges, including weak electricity infrastructure, inefficient transport, underdeveloped capital markets, limited mineral processing, and inconsistent governance. Climate finance and ESG frameworks are increasingly seen as tools to attract investment in mineral infrastructure and enhance sustainability. This article contends that these mechanisms are not neutral; their developmental impacts are shaped by risk allocation, value capture, the extent to which infrastructure supports transformation rather than extraction, and the degree of local community participation in governance and benefit-sharing. Crucially, positive policy outcomes depend on activating targeted policy levers. These include local content requirements to promote domestic participation in supply chains, fiscal incentives to encourage investment in processing and infrastructure, regulatory reforms to improve transparency and governance, and explicit community benefit agreements to ensure local value capture. The article introduces a two-pathway framework: transformative developmental finance is achieved when climate-aligned capital underpins industrial policy, integrated infrastructure planning, regional value chains, and equitable governance. Conversely, green financial extractivism occurs when the rhetoric of sustainable finance is used to prioritise investor risk mitigation, restrict domestic spillovers, and facilitate externally driven infrastructure. Applying this framework to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa shows that mineral abundance alone does not guarantee development. Rather, positive outcomes depend on aligning climate finance and ESG with reforms and systems that promote beneficiation, diversification, and inclusive value capture.

• openaire https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6691227first seen 2026-07-09 04:37:00