The true and painful cost of our EV batteries

Edmond Musans, a 62-year old resident of Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), resents the presence of Compagnie Minière de Musonoie Global SAS (COMMUS), a copper and cobalt-mining firm, in his neighbourhood. This, he claims, is because the mining giant has impoverished him.

Since COMMUS, a joint venture mining firm between Zijin Mining Group Ltd, a Chinese company, and Générale des Carrières et des Mines SA (Gécamines), the state mining entity in DRC, reopened its vast open-pit copper and cobalt mine, Musans lost the house he invested his life savings in, having been forced to 'make room' for the mine.

"We did not ask to be moved, the company and the government came and told us, 'There are minerals here,' " Musans told researchers from Amnesty International and the DRC-based organisation Initiative pour la Bonne Gouvernance et les Droits Humains (IBGDH), commenting on his forced eviction from the neighbourhood of Cité Gécamines, which is home to roughly 39,000 people. 

According to Powering Change or Business As Usual, a report compiled by Amnesty International and IBGDH, Musans and other evacuees from his neighbourhood were offered "compensation" by COMMUS for their forced removal, but the amounts they received were inadequate to purchase them equivalent homes.

As a result, many have had to move into properties without running water or reliable power on the outskirts of Kolwezi, experiencing a shocking decline in their standard of living. 

As it stands, they have no effective means of appeal or redress.

Grievous Human Rights Abuses

In the report, the two organisations detail how the expansion of industrial-scale cobalt and copper mines in the DRC has led to the forced eviction of entire communities and grievous human rights abuses including sexual assault, arson and beatings. 

"The forced evictions taking place as companies seek to expand industrial-scale copper and cobalt mining projects are wrecking lives and must stop now," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

"Amnesty International recognizes the vital function of rechargeable batteries in the energy transition from fossil fuels. But climate justice demands a just transition. Decarbonizing the global economy must not lead to further human rights violations."

Donat Kambola, president of IBGDH, said in a statement: "People are being forcibly evicted, or threatened or intimidated into leaving their homes, or misled into consenting to derisory settlements. Often there was no grievance mechanism, accountability, or access to justice."

"We found repeated breaches of legal safeguards prescribed in international human rights law and standards, and national legislation, as well as blatant disregard for the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights," Candy Ofime and Jean-Mobert Senga, Amnesty International researchers and co-authors of the report, said.

To produce the report, Amnesty International and IBGDH interviewed more than 130 people at six different mining projects in and around the city of Kolwezi in the southern province of Lualaba during two separate visits in 2022.

The report served to demonstrate that the growing demand for so-called clean energy technologies has created a corresponding demand for certain metals, including copper, and cobalt, which are essential for making most lithium-ion batteries. These are used to power a wide range of devices including electric cars and mobile phones.

The DRC is home to the world’s largest reserves of cobalt, and the seventh-largest reserves of copper. 

The report draws similar conclusions to those of a study titled This Is What We Die For, which was jointly-produced by Amnesty International and African Resources Watch (Afrewatch). The report shed light on human rights violations in the DRC associated with the push for clean energy, revealing a concerning lack of improvement.

Africa And the 'Green Conflict Minerals'

This trend extends beyond the DRC to countries like Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia and others in the Global South. Climate justice and human rights advocates are increasingly concerned about the world's apparent divergence from the principles of a just transition.

The Business and Human Rights centre has tracked about 500 cases of human rights violations from 2010 to 2021 linked to the green transition, with Chinese firms found to commit the highest rates of abuse.

According to the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), Africa is home 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves, many of which, such as cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, graphite, bauxite, nickel and zinc, constitute the "green conflict minerals" that are key for the green transition. 

In June 2021, ActionAid International and Netherlands-based Centre for Research on Multinationals (SOMO), published a report titled Manganese Matters, exposing the harmful impact of manganese mining on communities in South Africa. 

The report revealed cases of gross human rights violations in the Northern Cape province, where 18 of South Africa’s 22 manganese mines are located. It further exposed that local communities face violations to their rights to water, health and free and prior informed consent, among others. 

"The increased demand for manganese for batteries is posing a serious threat to local communities, with women and girls most at risk from rights abuses, including severe health conditions such as asbestos poisoning and tuberculosis, and exploitation," pointed the report.

Another SOMO research in Mozambique has revealed that graphite mining is causing the displacement of small-scale farmers, leading to the loss of land and forests without adequate replacement for their livelihoods. Furthermore, foreign-owned mining firms catering to the global car battery industry often fail to provide extensive employment opportunities for local communities in the extraction sites.

In March this year, the Daures community of Namibia protested against Tangshan XingFeng Spodumene Mining, a Chinese Lithium miner whose activities the farmers and small miners claimed violated their rights. The community calls upon the ministry of Mines and Energy to halt the mining with immediately.

In Zambia, human rights activists have been highlighting how mining for manganese and copper has caused pollution, illness and loss of livelihoods in the southern African nation. Reports indicate that people working in some manganese mines in Zambia (and South Africa) are suffering from Parkinson’s-like brain damage that is traceable to exposure to toxics while working without adequate personal protective equipment.

In May this year, Zimbabwean authorities temporarily shut down the country’s largest lithium miner, Bikita Minerals, after investigations exposed gross labour and human rights violations committed by the firm. Another Chinese lithium miner, Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, had its operations stopped due to worker safety issues after some deaths and other abuses had been exposed.

Silas Olan’g, the Africa Energy Transition Advisor at the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), said citizen engagement is fundamental for a just and equitable energy transition. But, sadly, he shared, public engagement on the matter has been dismally low.

"Mining in developing countries, Africa in particular, has long grappled with matters related to environmental degradation, pollution, social destruction and human rights abuses," Olan’g told FairPlanet. "Unfortunately, a large amounts of these minerals are found in countries that already struggle with governance, high levels of corruptions and constrained civic space."

He gave an example of the DRC, which he said performed poorly in the Natural Governance Index 2021. "The DRC [...] scored 30/100 and was among the lowest performing countries in Africa."

'A Neo-Colonial Mindset'

Audrey Gaughran, the executive director of the Amsterdam-based SOMO, a global public good organisation, said the business model underpinning the renewable energy sector is replicating the same patterns of exploitation and inequality that characterised the fossil fuel sector.

"The model relies on wealthy countries backing their companies to go out and extract the critical minerals needed to power electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines," Gaughran told FairPlanet.

"The EU’s colonial mind-set is evident. It is pushing trade and investment agendas on low-income countries that have the lithium, graphite and cobalt that EU car manufacturers and renewable energy businesses need."

She added, "China and the US are also driving the competitive exploitation of resource-rich countries, with China well ahead of the game because of its domestic reserves and a lock on processing of key minerals."

Gaughran finds it worrisome that Europe’s "green transition" is framed by European companies whose primary focus is shareholder value and profit maximisation.  

"SOMO has stated clearly that the European green transition is a neo-colonial project, replicating the extractivist policies of Europe in the fossil fuel era.  Europe’s trade and investment policies and the actions of policy-makers are largely about helping EU companies to access critical minerals, for solar and wind tech, but also, massively, for electric vehicles.  

"The policies treat producer countries - those countries that have the minerals - as sources of raw materials, to be used (again) to enable unequal and excessive consumption in the EU."

'Transition At Expense of Human Rights'

Speaking to FairPlanet, Davide Maneschi, a project manager (Climate and Finance) at Swedwatch, highlighted the substantial impact of mining on both the local population in the operational areas and the environment during the extraction of transition minerals.

"It is an industry whose operations and supply chains are marred with labour rights infringements, breaches of human rights, displacement and environmental degradation, etc.," Maneschi said.

He claimed that a just transition is not only about decarbonising the economy, but also about providing equal access to modern energy services, respecting human and labour rights, fostering a healthy environment and addressing the needs of those affected by the transition (such as workers in legacy sectors). 

"This is above all a matter of justice, but also a condition to implementing successful energy transition projects."

Is A Just Transition Achievable?

"In our view, a just energy transition is highly unlikely to occur without rethinking the current global governance model and without reducing and redistributing consumption," Maneschi said.

"In terms of global governance, there is a need to bring human rights, poverty reduction and a sustainable model of economic development to the centre, as opposed to economic growth and profits."

He added, "In terms of consumption, middle-and high income countries and households need to reduce their consumption levels to avoid an unsustainable burden on the Earth’s resources and carrying capacity, while low-income countries and households need to increase their consumption to achieve well-being."

SOMO’s Gaughran, who also chairs the advisory council of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, said that there is no version of a just energy transition that is corporate-led.

"The transition is far from universal. There is a massive lack of infrastructure for a renewable energy transition (or just access to energy) in many countries," she said. "You can’t have a just energy transition if millions of people have no access to energy at all."

"The Global North and wealthy countries of the East (China, Japan, South Korea) will make the transition, but at what cost? And paid for by whom?" she asked. "There is no way to realise a just energy transition without ending the 'maximise shareholder value' corporate mindset that is now completely baked into the process."

Image by The International Institute for Environment and Development.