![]() If he is forecasting the production of 20 million electric vehicles in a decade, this clearly will not be enough.Īlternatively, Musk is promising that his firm is developing a new cobalt-free battery technology. Several years ago, Elon Musk vowed he would avoid sourcing from the DRC altogether, instead relying on North American mines, which account for less than 4% of the global reserves. Companies that adopt and are deemed compliant with these standards would be able to assure their customers that they are addressing child labor and mine safety issues.Īmerican automakers are notably missing from this table, including Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, and Tesla. The partnership aims to work closely with local actors in the DRC, including the government, mine owners, civil society organizations, and mine workers themselves to build an effective system to combat child labor and address unsafe working conditions. They have joined a new initiative called the Cobalt Action Partnership, whose objective is to create industry-wide human rights standards and metrics, as well as a system to implement those standards and assess compliance.Īmong the leaders of this collective effort are German automakers BMW and Volkswagen, battery material manufacturer BASF, and Trafigura. Trafigura helped Baumann-Pauly gain access to that mine, and she sees it as offering some insight into how this might work in practice.įinally, and perhaps most importantly, Baumann-Pauly makes a compelling case for collective action by those working throughout the cobalt supply chain, including local mine owners, commodity traders, battery makers, and global buyers such as auto companies and consumer electronics firms.įortunately, some mostly European companies have begun to come together in this way to wrestle with these daunting challenges. In her report, Baumann-Pauly, who also directs the new Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights at the University of Geneva, cites as an example a formalization pilot project at Mutoshi overseen by Trafigura, a large Swiss-based commodity trading firm that has a significant commercial presence in the DRC. Within the mines a formalized process will help to establish safety standards and a system to apply them-measures, for example, that would limit the depth of pits and provide protective equipment. ![]() ![]() This will help ensure that children don’t gain access to the mines and encourage local authorities to provide them access to decent schools. More than 70% of all cobalt mining globally takes place in the DRC, and most of the known reserves are there as well. If companies intend to source cobalt from the DRC, they need to commit to addressing child labor and mine safety as business priorities.īaumann-Pauly urges companies to help formalize artisanal mining activities and establish a robust monitoring system at the mine sites. ![]() First, it calls on companies that rely on cobalt to power their products to acknowledge their reliance on DRC-mined cobalt and the attendant risks and responsibilities. ![]()
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