The clean energy transition has unleashed unprecedented demand for key minerals and metals. Lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite are crucial to battery performance, longevity and energy density. Rare-earth elements are essential for permanent magnets used in wind turbines and electric vehicle (EV) motors, while copper underpins electricity-related technologies. These so-called critical minerals and metals are considered the building blocks for the green and digital economy, without which there will be no batteries, no EVs, no wind turbines and no solar panels. Creamer Media’s ‘Battery Metals 2023: Powering the green economy’ report provides an overview of the battery metals market in this context. Globally, the focus of the report is on supply and demand and the creation of a sustainable battery value chain, as well as the environmental and social impact of battery metals production. In Africa, the report’s focus shifts to some of the key mining projects under way on the continent.

The telecommunications sector is expected to be the fastest-growing industry in Africa over the next five years as Internet connectivity improves – a positive development since growth in telecommunications spurs growth in other sectors. South Africa, therefore, must facilitate digital infrastructure development, and “stop writing policies and strategies for 2050” until it can execute on the strategies already in place for the period up to 2025, Inclusive Society Institute’s (ISA’s) ‘Rejuvenating South Africa’s Economy – An ICT sector perspective’ report contends. It must do this by driving an inclusive agenda, clarifying how the country will deliver affordable connectivity and devices, and how platforms for local content can be developed to stimulate demand. Creamer Media’s ‘Telecommunications 2023: Prospects for consolidation’ report examines South Africa’s telecommunications sector in respect of its connectivity profile, the trends in the sector, the challenges it faces, policy and regulatory developments, as well as the companies that are driving the sector forward.

International Energy Agency executive director Dr Fatih Birol has said that the world is facing its “first truly global energy crisis”. However, he argues that faster clean energy transitions could help to moderate the impact of the crisis. South Africa has committed to reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030 and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, subject to appropriate financial support, and premised on enabling a just transition for affected communities and regions. Government’s Just Energy Transition (JET) Investment Plan outlines investments valued at a combined R1.50-trillion that should be made in the electricity, electric vehicle and green hydrogen sectors over the five years from 2023 to 2027 to enable South Africa to meet its climate commitments, stabilise energy supply and cushion vulnerable workers and communities. Creamer Media’s “Energy Transition Report 2023” examines South Africa's JET plans by delving into the state of its electricity sector and its current 6 000 MW electricity shortfall; its State-owned power utility Eskom and the challenges it is facing in alleviating that shortfall, and independent power producers that are in the best position to help bridge that shortfall. It also examines South Africa’s potential to produce green hydrogen, and the role that the automotive and mining sectors have to play in fulfilling the country's JET, as well as the capacity that the just transition has to create much-needed employment.

South African Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has proclaimed mining is still a sunrise industry on the African continent and has urged investors to come to Africa, because “That’s where the future is!” However, many investors are finding it difficult to heed the Minister’s call largely owing to the countless, sometimes insurmountable, barriers that prevent many of them from even getting past the initial stages of exploration. As a result, the extent of Africa’s purported mineral wealth remains unknown.

Without basic infrastructure to deliver energy and water, and to facilitate mobility and communication, South Africa’s growth prospects will remain constrained. Greenfield and brownfield investment will also not materialise at the pace and scale needed to stimulate the mass employment required to begin addressing the country’s social scourges. While the costs of these backlogs are mounting, some optimism can be drawn from the fact that, from energy and transport to digital communications, government and its State-owned enterprises are moving in a direction that will open some of these sectors to new investors. If well managed, it is even possible that these partnerships could result in a private, fixed investment boom and that the infrastructure required to stimulate future productive investment will begin to materialise.

The global metals and mining sector is a significant producer of carbon dioxide. Mining is currently responsible for an estimated 4% to 7% of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, while the steel sector accounts for about 10% of combined global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. With this in mind, efforts to decarbonise economies are being accelerated worldwide to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030. South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, in partnership with national and provincial environmental partners, submitted an updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) report at the twenty-sixth edition of the climate negotiations, held in Glasgow in November 2021. This represents a 17% and 28% reduction in 2025 and 2030 respectively, on the initial upper-end target of the 614-million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent set in the 2015 NDC. Creamer Media’s ‘Decarbonisation 2022: Decarbonisation in South Africa’s mining and steel sectors’ report considers the challenges the country faces in achieving these goals and the steps that it is taking to realise the its decarbonisation ambitions.

After many years of allowing the infrastructure of the crucial network industries that underpin South Africa’s logistics sector to deteriorate, amid inadequate maintenance, indecision and corruption, government appears to have resolved itself to improving the performance of the sector. It aims to do this by improving the efficiency of its underperforming ports by allocating more funds for port projects, ramping up road construction and maintenance, as well as permitting private-sector participation in the rail sector, where the challenge of restricted capacity has been exacerbated by the increasing incidence of asset theft and vandalism. In light of these developments, Creamer Media has compiled the ‘Roads, Rail & Ports 2022: Inefficiencies holding back economic growth’ report in which these pertinent issues are discussed, including a review of the scale and state of South Africa’s roads, rail and ports infrastructure, the maintenance and funding thereof, and the initiatives that are under way to tackle the many inefficiencies in these sectors.

Creamer Media’s ‘Hydrogen 2022: Green hydrogen gaining momentum’ report delves into the global hydrogen sector, including demand and supply, investment, the technology behind the energy source, as well as the trade thereof. The report specifically highlights the significance and potential of South Africa as a green hydrogen producer, including the resources and technology it has to produce the fuel. It also discusses some of the projects that it is undertaking to achieve its ambitions of becoming a significant green hydrogen producer.

Creamer Media’s ‘Water 2022: A system under pressure’ report provides a global overview of the challenges and opportunities facing water and sanitation systems worldwide. In particular, the report focuses on South Africa’s impending water crisis and the status quo around water regulations and policies, planning by government and its aim to eliminate any further portents of a “Day Zero”. The report also highlights some of the major water and sanitation projects under construction, as well as the funding thereof.

Creamer Media’s 'Automotive 2022: The road to EVs' report examines South Africa’s automotive industry in this context, unpacking the country’s vehicle sales, manufacturing and investment by the country’s original-equipment manufacturers and components industry, as well as the regulatory environment. It also explores the shift from internal combustion engines to EVs, as it becomes increasingly necessary to decarbonise and mitigate against climate change.