We are entering a new industrial era. Like the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution and the Digital Revolution before it, the clean energy transition is reshaping how societies grow, trade and build prosperity. This time, however, the foundations of that transformation are not steam or silicon, but metals and minerals.
Every electric vehicle, battery, wind turbine and data centre depends on critical metals and minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel and manganese.
And many of these are mined in Africa. That places the continent at the centre of the global transition and exposes it to disproportionate risk if mining practices do not evolve as fast as demand.
In 2025, those risks became impossible to ignore.
Around the world, tailings storage facility (TSF) failures and near-misses offered a stark reminder that the clean energy transition can only be as credible as the systems that manage its waste.
Progress has been made on governance and standards, but implementation gaps remain, particularly where water management and real-time monitoring are concerned.
If 2025 was the year the industry took stock, then 2026 must be the year it acts.
Africa’s central role – and its exposure
Africa is home to some of the world’s most important critical metal and mineral reserves.
Global demand is accelerating as countries pursue net-zero targets, electrify transport, expand renewable energy infrastructure, and build AI data centres.
Yet the communities and ecosystems closest to extraction sites often face the greatest environmental and social consequences.
This imbalance is not inevitable, but it is real.
Too often, sustainability commitments focus on downstream emissions while overlooking upstream risks.
Tailings failures, water contamination and land instability undermine trust in mining operations and, by extension, in the clean energy transition itself.
For Africa, the stakes are particularly high.
Mining is a cornerstone of economic development, employment and export revenue.
But without stronger safeguards, the long-term costs – environmental degradation, water stress and community displacement could outweigh the benefits.
Tailings and water: the hidden constraint on net zero
Tailings management rarely features in mainstream climate conversations, yet it sits at the heart of the mining value chain.
Tailings facilities are not static structures; they are dynamic systems shaped by geology, operations and, increasingly, the climate.
More intense rainfall, longer wet seasons and changing hydrological patterns are placing additional strain on facilities that were not always designed for today’s conditions.
Water is the primary driver of instability in tailings systems, influencing pore pressures, seepage, deformation and erosion.
If mines cannot proactively manage water, net-zero ambitions become increasingly difficult to realise.
Tailings and water risk are not niche technical issues; they are systemic constraints on the clean energy transition.
Standards are necessary, but not sufficient
The introduction of global frameworks such as the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) has been a significant step forward.
Board-level accountability is improving with specific roles and responsibilities defined, and many operators are investing in better governance and disclosure.
However, standards alone do not prevent failures.
Self-assessment, periodic reporting and static inspections are not enough in a world where climate conditions are changing faster than design assumptions.
What matters is whether systems are working in practice, day after day.
That requires independent assessment, continuous visibility and clear accountability.
It also requires moving beyond a compliance mindset towards a risk-management mindset grounded in data.
Monitoring as strategic infrastructure
This is where technology plays a defining role.
Real-time environmental intelligence, drawing on ground-based instrumentation, IoT sensor networks, satellite observations and advanced analytics, allows all the stakeholders to understand how tailings facilities and surrounding catchments are behaving in near real time.
All stakeholders must use the same data, collaborating and making informed decisions to prevent failures.
The value of this approach extends beyond mining.
Water monitoring, land stability analysis and early-warning systems are increasingly relevant across sectors, from energy and infrastructure to agriculture and urban development.
In an era of climate volatility, continuous monitoring is becoming a form of strategic infrastructure.
For mining operators, it enables early intervention before small deviations escalate into failures.
For regulators and investors, it provides confidence that risks are actively managed. For communities, it offers greater transparency and accountability.
From reaction to prediction
One of the most important shifts underway is the move from reactive response to predictive prevention.
Instead of relying on retrospective reporting, operators can now validate design assumptions over time, test emergency preparedness, and adapt controls as conditions change.
This shift is not about replacing human expertise.
Engineers of record, operators and regulators remain central to decision-making.
Technology simply provides the timely, reliable information needed to act with confidence.
A moment for African leadership
As the clean energy transition accelerates, Africa has a choice.
It can remain a supplier of raw materials while absorbing the risks, or it can lead by demonstrating what responsible, transparent extraction looks like in practice.
This leadership will not come from rhetoric alone.
It will come from closing implementation gaps, investing in water and tailings monitoring, embedding independent oversight and making environmental performance visible to those most affected.
The transition to clean energy is often framed as a moral imperative. It is also an operational one. If the foundations are unstable, the structure will not hold.
In 2026, the challenge for industry, governments and investors is clear: ensure that the systems underpinning the clean energy transition are as resilient and future-ready as the technologies they support.
For Africa, getting this right is not just an opportunity, it is essential to ensuring that the benefits of the transition are shared, sustainable and just.
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