The rhetoric of the 'green energy transition' increasingly sounds like the echoes of old imperialisms. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the billionaire-backed KoBold Metals is currently entangled in license disputes as it maps lithium deposits, a project heavily coordinated with the US State Department to bypass Chinese supply chain dominance. This is the new 'Mineral Imperialism,' where humanitarian aid and trade policy are weaponized to secure the physical inputs of the future economy.

Zimbabwe has now emerged as the world’s fourth-largest lithium producer, a status that has made it a central target for international extraction. The US and Japan are already implementing border-adjusted price floors to underwrite Western mining projects, shielding them from market volatility while locking Global South nations into roles as mere raw material exporters. This structural division of labor—where some nations specialize in losing their resources so others can win their climate targets—has not changed since the colonial era.

We must reject the lie that this extraction is 'de-risking' the global economy. For the communities in the DRC and Zimbabwe, it represents the risk of total ecological and social displacement. While the World Meteorological Organization warns that the Earth’s energy is moving dangerously out of balance, the solution offered by the Global North is more extraction and more enclosure. True climate justice cannot be built on a foundation of neo-colonial resource theft. We must demand a transition that prioritizes the sovereignty of the communities sitting on these mineral deposits over the strategic anxieties of Washington.