There is an African paradox: While the continent has all the resources (30 percent of the world’s critical minerals) necessary to be a powerful response to the global energy crisis and a support for the green transition, its potential is still unrealized. The international community continues to fall short in its financial commitments to climate finance. Countries that are home to immense resources essential for electric vehicles, lithium batteries, cellphones, medical scanners, and military hardware, are facing forgotten wars fueled by resources that are under their feet without any serious international pacification efforts. Instead of investing time, diplomatic energy and money, some major powers—so talkative in the UN climate conferences about the urgency of global warming—do not miss an opportunity to extract these resources (and the jobs that go with them), without worrying about local development, the acquisition of skills or the creation of jobs for local populations. Responsible investment in critical minerals would not only constitute a major contribution to African development but also a sustainable solution to the challenges of the energy transition for the whole world.