Source: Amnesty International
Ensuring clean and green battery supply chains must be a priority for businesses and governments during the post-pandemic recovery, Amnesty International said today. The organization has published a set of principles for ensuring that lithium-ion batteries, which power electric vehicles and many electronic devices, and which are essential for tackling climate change, are not linked to human rights abuses or environmental harm.
Previous Amnesty research exposed how cobalt mined by children in the DRC could be entering the supply chains of some of the world’s biggest electronic and electric vehicle brands, while in South America, evidence points to lithium extraction posing risks to Indigenous peoples’ water resources and fragile ecosystems.
Meanwhile the growing demand for “green” battery technologies poses new risks to the environment, including pollution of mining areas, damage to the ocean floor, and mounting waste due to inefficient design.
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