The EU wants to become climate-neutral by 2050 and thus mitigate the worst effects of climate change. However, the green future comes at a price, as it is not without raw materials - and many come from crisis regions in Africa. So far, one country in particular has taken the lead: China. But Europe wants to catch up and promises African countries fairer conditions than the authoritarian competition from Asia. However, not all countries are enthusiastic about the idea of the former colonial powers going back on the hunt for resources in Africa. Between jungle and rainforest, the green future is increasingly becoming a fierce geopolitical race.

After the film, trade expert Dr. Boniface Mabanza Bambu from the Kirchliche Arbeitsstelle Südliches Afrika in Heidelberg (KASA, https://www.woek.de/) will provide information on the latest developments in the controversial energy project "Namibia and Green Hydrogen". He was in Namibia in spring 2025 and discussed the purpose and pitfalls for Namibia and its population with local stakeholders. What profit, what loss, what risk do the unequal trading partners bear if Germany wants to produce green hydrogen in Namibia and then transport it to Europe with the greatest energy loss? The topic is particularly relevant for Karlsruhe because the planned natural gas power plant RDK9 in the Rhine harbor is to be operated with hydrogen at some point.

The documentary goes to the scenes of the adventurous hunt for raw materials in Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the authors manage to film in exploitative small-scale mines where Chinese traders illegally buy cobalt for the international energy market.

In the Namibian desert, the film follows the trail of a new mega-project for green hydrogen. Using state-of-the-art technology, Europe wants to show that it is not losing touch with the rest of the world and is also thinking about the local population. But local environmental activists are taking to the barricades, as parts of a national park are to fall victim to the billions in green investments.

In the oil-contaminated mangrove forests of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, it is becoming clear that Europe is not as climate-friendly as it likes to claim in Sunday speeches. After all, since the Russian war of aggression, European investors have been inconspicuously attempting to make lucrative natural gas deals here.

At some locations, the authors have to interrupt their research time and again for security reasons. In the end, however, between the Namibian desert and the Congolese jungle, they succeed in capturing an impressive overall picture of the global race for the coveted raw materials of the future, in which the dirty side of the hunt for clean energy sources also becomes clear. For the young Congolese activist Patricia Kashala, one thing is certain: "Europe wants to show that it does everything better here - and perhaps it sometimes tries to. On the ground, however, its own interests in raw materials are usually more important than the rights of the local population." And James Mnyupe, Presidential Advisor in Namibia, is concerned about the covetousness of Europe, China and America: "When the elephants fight, the grass suffers. So we have to be very careful not to be the grass."