Fyi, now Felix has more time on his hands after his last meeting of the AU office as Chairman of the African Union, who knows what he might get around to, as
Tshisekedi chairs his last meeting of the AU office as President of the African Union: Handover to Macky Sall, on February 05
The Head of State chaired, this Saturday, January 15, 2022 by videoconference from Kinshasa, his last meeting of the AU office as Chairman-in-Office of the African Union.
According to the services of the presidency, this final meeting of the office under the mandate of the DRC was intended to prepare the handover to President Macky Sall of Senegal during the 35th assembly of the AU scheduled from 05 to 06 February 2022.
Present alongside President Tshisekedi at this meeting: the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Christophe Lutundula Apala, the members of the African Union panel who accompany the mandate of the DRC to the presidency of the AU including Ntumba Luaba, Mr. Lundula, Mr. Nkongo Ngay.
Invested at the end of the 34th session of the African Union summit on February 7, 2021 as President of this African organization, the President of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi had defined an ambitious program for his term of office. 'one year.
COVID-19, the AfCFTA, peace, climate change, integration, gender equality and the promotion of African culture have been its main priorities.
Electric cars: Global rush for lithium set to spark first rise in cost of EV batteries after UK climate pledge
The Government has vowed to ban petrol and diesel cars from 2020 – but the rush to build batteries to charge them is set to trigger an earthquake in the market
The pledge is part of a global transformation of the auto industry. From 2030 the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned not only in the UK, but also in Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Ireland, to name just a few.
Meanwhile major manufacturers like General Motors, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have set their own dates for going all electric.
But it is now emerging that this huge shift could have huge knock-on consequences.
Analysts are warning that the cost of electric car batteries is set to rise this year for the first time ever, in a reversal of the usual trend for green technology to become cheaper.
And in the longer term it could trigger an earthquake in the global car economy, leaving China as the dominant supplier of electric vehicles (EVs).
Driving these shifts is a race for control over the world’s lithium, a core ingredient for EV batteries.
Over the last 10 months Chinese firms such as Ganfeng Lithium, Zijin Mining, and Chengdu Tianqi Industry Group have been on an “acquisition blitz”, according to analyst house SP Global.
Their acquisitions stretch far and wide across the globe, from Argentina to Mali, Australia, Canada, the DRC, Mexico, and Chile.
Over the last decade, Chinese firms have spent more than $6bn on lithium deals.
Analysts say the buying frenzy is part of China’s long-term plan to dominate the global EV market.
Chinese firms have already invested heavily in lithium processing and battery manufacturing capability, points out Henry Sanderson, executive editor of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
Securing access to raw supplies is the next part of the puzzle, he explains.
“China is not blessed with loads of domestic lithium, but what China has really done is control the processing of lithium,” he tells i.
“As a result it needed to go overseas to get resources.”
Assuming Chinese carmakers can hit on the right design and price point, Chinese EVs could become a common sight on British streets within a few years, he suggests.
“China has become a centrifugal force that sucks in everything in the lithium supply chain,” he tells i.
“China’s dream is to export EVs with Chinese-made batteries and components to the world.”
But China is not alone in rushing to expand lithium supply chains. The deadlines for banning new petrol and diesel cars – the EU has set its own for 2035 – have sparked a huge surge in EV sales. This has in turn driven lithium prices sky-high as Western firms rush to secure their supply chains.
The price of lithium carbonate is now almost $24,000 per tonne, up 290 per cent in a year.
“Prices have risen in 2021 and that is due to demand growing faster than supply can keep up,” says Seth Goldstein, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.
That is good news for lithium miners who are reaping huge investments for new projects, he notes.
“Every day it seems like there’s another announcement, with more and more capital going into lithium, more and more projects are being acquired or bid for.
It seems like the industry has finally woken up and realised that now is the time to be getting into new lithium assets.”
With demand for new supplies of lithium at fever pitch, a handful of pioneering companies are hoping to revive Cornwall’s once world-leading mining industry and put the county at the centre of the electric revolution.
“The whole lithium industry has become an arms race,” says Jeremy Wrathall, CEO of Cornish Lithium, one of the companies hoping to establish Cornwall as a hotspot for domestic supply.
