Cobalt Conundrum: Geopolitics and Resource Control

In the high-stakes competition to dominate the business of clean energy, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a major arena: The country is the source of more than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt, a key component of electric-car batteries.

In recent years, China has established a strong presence in Congo, while the United States has lost ground. We went to the African country to understand how that happened.

Guest: Dionne Searcey, a correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The United States failed to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments in Congo, where the world’s largest supply of cobalt is now controlled by Chinese companies backed by Beijing.
• The power struggle over Congo’s cobalt has rattled the clean-energy revolution.

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