The Grim Truth About Our Electric Cars
Introduction
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) dominates global cobalt production, and electric vehicles now form the largest source of demand for this metal. Artisanal mining has exposed thousands of people to human rights abuses as well as risk of injury and death. This paper will cover the following:
Introduces the injustices surrounding cobalt mining in the DRC, and details how this is imbedded within energy systems.
Analyses the current approach of the Congolese government and why this is insufficient at addressing the injustices.
Applies energy justice frameworks and principles of cosmopolitan justice, Kanthian ethics, due process and intragenerational justice.
Provides three coherent policy recommendations that could be implemented to address the injustices.
This analysis has established that the current ‘unjust’ mining practices in the DRC have proliferated as a direct consequence of the rising demand for EVs. The energy justice frameworks and principles have been used to breakdown the injustices and simultaneously act as a moral compass to inform our policy recommendations.
Human Rights and Social Conflict Injustice – Cobalt Mining in the DRC
Katanga, a southern province in the DRC is home to over half of global cobalt reserves and responsible for 70% of global supply (UNEP, 2022). All lithium-ion batteries, from those contained in EVs to smart phones contain this metal and demand has soared in recent years.
Mines across the Southern DRC are now primarily operated by Chinese firms, and much of the trade in cobalt takes place via a booming black market, with the majority being exported to China (Link, 2022). Artisanal mining on the periphery of the formal mining pits has proliferated in recent years, estimated to employ 200,000 people in the DRC and produces between 18-30% of the DRC’s cobalt (Beaule, 2023). Artisanal mining is a form of mining that mainly involves men, women, and children as young as six digging by hand in trenches and unsupported tunnels for cobalt, often with no protective equipment (Kara, 2023).
Contextual Background: Framing
Firstly, it is important to define human rights. The UN’s Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) is exhaustive, but relating to working conditions states:
“Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work” (ibid).
“Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity” (ibid).
Artisanal cobalt mining allows Congolese people to make between USD$2-3 per day, slightly higher than the national average (Amnesty International, 2016). This comes at a cost, with human rights abuses frequently reported, and child mining extremely pervasive. Miners have experienced physical and verbal abuse from formal mine workers and work in perilous conditions, risking long-term health effects and death from exposure to toxic cobalt, dust inhalation and tunnel collapse.
Child mining is so pervasive that estimates suggest that 40,000 children work under strenuous and inhumane conditions in artisanal cobalt mines across the DRC (Moss, 2023). As well as placing children into dangerous working environments, the necessity to work in mines to support family livelihoods means that many are being deprived of an education, raising intragenerational justice concerns.
Siddharth Kara (2023), a modern slavery researcher notes that illegal artisanal cobalt mining kills up to 2000 people per year in the DRC and has commented on the "the severity and scale of human degradation and exploitation at the bottom of global supply chains” (ibid). Sovacool echoes this by noting the indefensible way in which human beings are used to extract energy related products from the earth in hazardous occupational settings (Sovacool & Dworkin, 2014a).
Cobalt Mining – Imbedded Within Energy Systems
“The global energy system is inherently unequal”
Figure 1 shows that demand for cobalt has increased six-fold since 2016 (IEA, 2023), with the bulk of the demand now coming from the EV industry.
The world is undergoing a rapid transition to EVs, which now account for the main source of demand for cobalt, having overtaken smart phones and computers in 2021 (Hume, 2022). As countries like China continue to develop and bring more of their population into the middle class, demand for cobalt is expected to increase 20-fold by 2050 (van der Meide et al., 2022).
Cobalt supply chains are diffuse with primary extraction and intermediate refining taking place in the DRC, but much of the more advanced processing taking place in China (Jones et al., 2023). EV firms generally procure cobalt and battery cells directly from China, and as such Kara comments that these firms are subsequently not able to guarantee that the cobalt used in their batteries has not been sourced from mines in the DRC accused of human rights abuses and utilisation of child labour (Kara, 2023). It is therefore paradoxical and unjust that the high-tech EVs on the market today, branded as ‘ethical’ and ‘eco-friendly’ begin part of their lives in the mines of the DRC.
Insufficient Attempts to Reduce Cobalt Mining Injustices
Current attempts by the Congolese government to reduce these injustices are woefully lacking. The DRC’s mining Code (2002) provides no guidance or mandates relating to safety equipment and how to handle substances that may cause harm, such as cobalt (Amnesty International, 2016). Artisanal mining outside of government designated zones is illegal, however government agencies are ill-equipped to monitor and enforce this law, employing just 20 inspectors to monitor the entire south of the country (ibid). Corruption in this inspection regime and a lack of resources allows child labour and human rights abuses to proliferate, disproportionately impacting those living in extreme poverty. Equally, any regulation and enforcement to stop this illegal form of mining could place 200,000 people’s source of income at risk and further exacerbate their poverty.
International trade associations such as the Cobalt Institute are working to promote ethical sourcing of cobalt and reduce human rights abuses associated with this unregulated mining. Whilst they are an important advocate of responsible sourcing, as a trade association they lack the formal authority to directly impact Congolese government and international business policy surrounding the cobalt supply chain.
Research Question and Objectives
The following research question has been chosen:
How is the increasing demand for cobalt to fuel the EV industry negatively and disproportionately impacting Congolese artisanal miners?
Objectives:
Apply selected energy justice frameworks and principles to our case of human rights and social conflict injustices.
Provide coherent policy recommendations to policy makers that would help address the injustices.
Frameworks and Principles
This analysis will utilise frameworks and principles of energy justice to help address the human rights and social injustices presented by cobalt mining in the DRC. Firstly, the cosmopolitan justice framework has been chosen as it draws from principles introduced by distributive and procedural justice, but stipulates that these justice principles should be applied to all human beings across the world, regardless of borders (Sovacool & Dworkin, 2014b). This holistic approach to justice can be used to address injustices present in the cobalt mines of the DRC, impacting those at the bottom of global supply chains. With demand for EVs increasing exponentially, it is vital that international firms and governments consider this collective morality (ibid) when forming policy surrounding EV supply chains.
Concepts from distributive justice are also relevant when applying the cosmopolitan justice framework to these injustices. The global energy system is inherently unequal, therefore proper assessments and information campaigns are required to identify where key impacts of the system are located (McCauley et al., 2019). Artisanal miners in the DRC, produce more cobalt than Russia, the world’s second largest cobalt producer (Murray, 2022). The injustices faced by artisanal miners mean the burdens associated with the EV industry are disproportionately borne by Congolese people. This reality is contrary to the ethos of cosmopolitan justice which emphasises the need for justice to be global in scope and that all human beings have an equal moral worth.
Cosmopolitan justice provides a framework that can be applied to the DRC. It does however rely on information about global injustices being publicised and known about, with uncomfortable truths about modern industries seldom known about by those in the global North. It also requires international cooperation and the protection of human rights, which is difficult to achieve and has the potential to violate the sovereignty of individual nation state decision-making.
Kanthian ethics, proposed by Immanuel Kant can be used as a philosophical guide to help compliment the cosmopolitan framework. It advocates that for a ‘just’ society to exist, humanity should never be treated as a means to an end, and that actions are immoral if they involve people in something to which they cannot consent (Sovacool and Dworkin, 2014a). In the case of the DRC, artisanal miners are an essential part of the cobalt supply chain yet are paid and treated in a way that does not reflect this value. 60 million Congolese people (62% of the population) live in extreme poverty, many of whom send their children to the mines to supplement the family income (World Bank, 2023). This in effect removes the consent from the equation, and through the application of Kanthian ethics it can be demonstrated that the situation is ‘unjust’.
Kanthian ethics is a useful benchmark measure of morality of an energy system, however it does have limitations. It does not account for the interconnectedness of the globalised world and the long supply chains that are now essential for production of modern goods and services. Due to the diffuse nature of the supply chain, any attempts to reduce cobalt mining injustices might place 200,000 people’s livelihoods at risk, potentially worsening their financial situations. Despite this it can be used as a moral compass to strive towards throughout policy formation.
Application of frameworks and Principles
In summary, we have established that the current situation in the DRC and the government’s response to this is unjust. In applying these frameworks, the principles of due process and intragenerational justice are important considerations.
Due process – artisanal miners in the DRC are exposed to economic marginality due to lack of employment opportunities, forcing them into the cobalt mines. There is also clear evidence that miner’s basic human rights are not being respected in the decision-making process.
Intragenerational justice – Congolese artisanal miners are disproportionally exposed to health impacts and a low standard of well-being as a direct consequence of the EV energy system. Sovacool emphasises that people living now should not be unfairly impacted by the damage our energy system is inflicting upon the world (Sovacool & Dworkin, 2015).
Policy Recommendations
Three policy suggestions have been proposed to reduce injustices present in cobalt mining in the DRC. These are directed at the Congolese government and international EV firms.
1. Formalise artisanal mining – The Congolese Government should formalise artisanal mining under the law and facilitate the establishment of mining cooperatives. This would allow artisanal miners to participate in the policy process (Elbel & O'Reilly, 2023) and improve working conditions and safety standards.
2. Mine inspection regime – The Congolese government supported by international EV firms should invest in a rigorous inspection regime of cobalt mines to ensure that child mining does not take place and that safety standards are met. Attention should be paid to ensuring that resources are appropriately allocated to manage the scale of the inspection regime and corruption should be rooted out. Transparent reports should be released annually to support continuous improvement.
3. Community investment – The Congolese government should implement a tax on mining firm’s operations in the country. This revenue should be directed to supporting community initiatives and employment opportunities within mining communities. This investment should target improvements in the standard of living and provide free of charge primary and secondary education to children. This will enhance due process as evidenced by Sovacool & Dworkin (2014c).
Conclusion
This paper has explored human rights and social conflict injustices presented by cobalt mining in the DRC. The current working conditions faced by artisanal cobalt miners has been demonstrated as being unjust, and the substantial increase in demand for EVs is having a direct impact on the proliferation of artisanal cobalt mining. Congolese people risk their lives for as little as USD$2-3 per day (Amnesty International, 2016), and the approach currently adopted by the Congolese government to reduce the injustices is ineffective.
A research question was formulated, ‘how is the increasing demand for cobalt to fuel the EV industry negatively and disproportionately impacting Congolese artisanal miners? To answer this, two working objectives were implemented. Firstly, supported by background research, energy justice frameworks and principles were applied to the injustice to inform the argument. Secondly, these frameworks and principles were used as a moral compass to inform our policy recommendations that could be implemented to address the injustices.
To ensure due process and intragenerational justice is imbedded into the policy process we recommend that the Congolese government formalise artisanal mining, implement a rigorous inspection regime of mines, and invest in mining communities to improve standards of living and reduce injustices.
