In his first – and most likely last – visit to sub-Saharan Africa as US President this week, Joe Biden chose to focus on the planned upgrade of a cross-border railway that is set to take minerals needed for the energy transition out of Central Africa to the coast and on to the United States.
After walking among the cargo containers at Angola’s Lobito port, from where copper and cobalt will be shipped, Biden sat around a wooden table in a food processing facility with the leaders of Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the Lobito Corridor Trans-Africa Summit.
He told his African peers that the Lobito Corridor railway project would be a “game changer”, bringing economic growth to Africa and the rest of the world. Currently, copper is transported to the port by road with truckers often stuck in queues for weeks at border crossings, but the railway’s supporters claim it will cut the journey time from several weeks to just days.
The White House said it was announcing over $560 million in new funding this week – including commitments expected to generate at least $200 million in additional private-sector capital – for infrastructure projects along the Lobito Corridor. US investments now total more than $4 billion, it said, adding that with G7 partners and regional development banks, international investment in the Lobito Corridor exceeds $6 billion.
The Lobito Corridor is an old, recently-restored railway which runs from the Angolan coastal port of Lobito 1,344 km to the border town of Luau, where it links with the railway of the cobalt-rich DRC. A coalition of local and Western companies and governments want to extend it to Zambia’s copper mines.
Transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy will require huge amounts of copper to carry electricity and cobalt for batteries. The US and China are competing to source limited supplies of these materials for their electric vehicle manufacturers.
China is helping refurbish the Tazara railway linking Zambia’s Copperbelt province to Africa’s east coast in Tanzania. In Angola yesterday, Biden’s energy and investment adviser Amos Hochstein said that copper and cobalt is “now going to be switching direction on this corridor”.
Local benefits
Speaking after Biden, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said the project, which he drew up with Hochstein in his “dingy office” in Zambia’s capital, is a “huge opportunity” for Africa. He added that the minerals will “make our global economy greener”.
He stressed the importance of linking the railway with the Chinese-built Tazara eastern railway “which will really mean that we can connect our continent” from the west to east coast.
Sitting next to him, the president of neighbouring DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, said the project would create 30,000 jobs, reduce logistics costs, increase export revenues and offer “a strategic alternative to other exportation corridors”.
But of equal importance, he added, is the need to process the copper and cobalt locally before it is exported. “It is imperative that the wealth contained in our ground contribute directly to the well-being of our peoples,” he said through an interpreter.
Q&A: What you need to know about clean energy and critical minerals supply chains
Emmanuel Umpula Nkumba, executive director of the DRC-based African Natural Resources Watch (AFREWATCH), agreed, telling Climate Home that Africa has historically exported its raw minerals without benefiting from the finished products. “If this project will do the same, then there will not be a huge difference and we will not win in this transition,” he warned.
In a fact sheet, the White House said the US “is committed to ensuring reliable supply chains by supporting the development of this sector [critical minerals] with environmentally respectful processing so more of the value is captured on the continent”. It said US government support is being provided for a nickel mining and refining project in Tanzania, rare earths mining and refining in Angola, and a “green copper mining” project in Zambia.
Map of the Lobito Atlantic Railway Corridor (Pic: Trafigura)
Troubled railway
The Lobito railway was built by a British company in the early 20th-century and although its developers originally planned that it would reach Zambia’s copper mines, it only ever got as far as Angola’s border with the DRC.
It fell into disuse in the late 20th-century during Angola’s 27-year civil war. Zambian copper was mostly diverted east to Mozambique and then from 1976 on the Chinese-built Tazara Railway to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
In 2015, the Chinese government stepped in and carried out a $2-billion rehabilitation of the Lobito railway. But in July 2022, the Angolan government awarded a 30-year concession to maintain and operate the railway to a consortium of European companies led by Trafigura and Mota-Engil, rejecting a Chinese bid.
The Africa Finance Corporation, owned by private companies and the Nigerian government, has promised to try and mobilise $500 million in finance through various instruments to bring the Lobito railway to Zambia. The US government is aiming for construction of that stretch to start in 2026.
The US government has backed the Lobito project financially, with its Development Finance Corporation (DFC) approving a $553-million loan to improve the Angolan section of the railway and add more carriages to the trains.
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However, with Donald Trump taking over the White House in January, it is unclear whether the Republican president-elect will support the project once in office.
There are pointers that Trump may well continue the project and possibly claim it was inspired by him because it is backed by the reformed Development Finance Corp – America’s development finance institution which, alongside the private sector, funds solutions to challenges facing developing countries and was started during his first tenure. Reuters reported that two government officials who served under Trump say the next US president will likely back parts of the Lobito project.
Asked whether the project was “Trump-proof” on the presidential plane to Angola, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said: “It’s our fervent hope that as the new team comes in and takes a look at this that they see the value too, that they see how it will help drive a more secure, more prosperous, more economically stable continent.”
(Reporting by Vivian Chime; editing by Joe Lo and Megan Rowling)
The post Biden uses only Africa visit to promote “game changer” railway for copper and cobalt appeared first on Climate Home News.
Biden uses only Africa visit to promote “game changer” railway for copper and cobalt
The case shows that climate change is a fundamental human rights violation—and the victory of Bonaire, a Dutch territory, could open the door for similar lawsuits globally.
From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Paloma Beltran with Greenpeace Netherlands campaigner Eefje de Kroon.
A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won
Climate Change
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US announce they will seek a new trial and, if necessary, appeal the decision with the North Dakota Supreme Court following a North Dakota District Court judgment today awarding Energy Transfer (ET) USD $345 million.
ET’s SLAPP suit remains a blatant attempt to silence free speech, erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, and punish solidarity with peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International will also continue to seek damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits under EU anti-SLAPP legislation in the Netherlands.
Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director said: “Energy Transfer’s attempts to silence us are failing. Greenpeace International will continue to resist intimidation tactics. We will not be silenced. We will only get louder, joining our voices to those of our allies all around the world against the corporate polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise profits over people and the planet.
“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher. Through appeals in the US and Greenpeace International’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case in the Netherlands, we are exploring every option to hold Energy Transfer accountable for multiple abusive lawsuits and show all power-hungry bullies that their attacks will only result in a stronger people-powered movement.”
The Court’s final judgment today rejects some of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, but still awards hundreds of millions of dollars to ET without a sound basis in law. The Greenpeace defendants will continue to press their arguments that the US Constitution does not allow liability here, that ET did not present evidence to support its claims, that the Court admitted inflammatory and irrelevant evidence at trial and excluded other evidence supporting the defense, and that the jury pool in Mandan could not be impartial.[1][2]
ET’s back-to-back lawsuits against Greenpeace International and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a suit against ET under Dutch law and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark test of the new legislation which could help set a powerful precedent against corporate bullying.[4]
Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “This is part of a worrying trend globally: fossil fuel corporations are increasingly using litigation to attack and silence ordinary people and groups using the law to challenge their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to these tactics here in Australia.
“Rulings like this have a chilling effect on democracy and public interest litigation — we must unite against these silencing tactics as bad for Australians and bad for our democracy. Our movement is stronger than any corporate bully, and grows even stronger when under attack.”
Energy Transfer’s SLAPPs are part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Big Oil companies like Shell, Total, and ENI against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[3] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
-ENDS-
Images available in Greenpeace Media Library
Notes:
[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court Judge Gion follows a jury verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Judge Gion subsequently threw out several items from the jury’s verdict, reducing the total damages to approximately US$345 million.
[2] Public statements from the independent Trial Monitoring Committee
[3] Energy Transfer’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2017 under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on Energy Transfer’s claims based on state law, so Energy Transfer promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
[4] Greenpeace International sent a Notice of Liability to Energy Transfer on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline giant of Greenpeace International’s intention to bring an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the company in a Dutch Court. After Energy Transfer declined to accept liability on multiple occasions (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against Energy Transfer. The case was officially registered in the docket of the Court of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace International seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of Energy Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace organisations in the US. The next hearing in the Court of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.
Media contact:
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
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In a new report that outlines a dozen high-risk pollutants given new life thanks to weakened, delayed or rescinded regulations, the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of hundreds of former Environmental Protection Agency staff, warns that the EPA under President Donald Trump has abandoned the agency’s core mission of protecting people and the environment from preventable toxic exposures.
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Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
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