Child Labor and our electric cars

this has been covered in everything from electronics to clothing. it is difficult to regulate the rest of the world

 

Yet curiously cell phones and laptops are not mentioned. There has been a long effort to discredit efficient vehicles like the Prius or any battery electric vehicle. But it is always a one sided complaint that ignores other nickel or cobalt uses.

I am OK with fighting child labor by going directly to the ones who pay them. Address the problem, not the product or a single user. This is a more accurate source: Apple and Google named in US lawsuit over Congolese child cobalt mining deaths | Global development | The Guardian

Let me put it this way, are you ready for the USA to use military force against the Congo to end child labor? Meanwhile, don't look too closely at our farming practices.

Bob Wilson

 

It took more than a decade of shaming before Apple cracked-down on their manufacturers' child labor practices. Those practices simply moved to 3nd party subcontractors. Though still a breach of Apple's contract - it's tough to enforce in a foreign country where everyone is told to look the other way.

 

This is a cyclical news item. Those articles are from 2022 and 2018. Most published act like growing battery use in electronics and appliances isn't a problem for child exploitation, if that use is mentioned at all.

Responsible companies are divesting from cobalt sources in the Congo, but it is difficult with shady intermediators in the market. Research has been going into reducing cobalt content since before these reports to reduce cost. LFP doesn't contain any at all, but its lower energy density doesn't work for the 400+ mile ranges some are demanding.

Farming? Suppliers for Hyundai here got caught using child labor.
Korean auto giant Hyundai investigating child labor in its U.S. supply chain | CNN Business

 

It isn’t an issue for EVs.
It is an issue for companies sourcing Cobalt from child labor.

If you want to say it is an issue for EVs, you also need to accept it is an issue for Food, Sneakers, Clothing, Electronics, and lots of other products.

 

I still recall my argument with EV denialists with them saying that cobalt is 100% an EV issue and not a Chinese cell company issue because EVs finally used slightly more cobalt than the cell industry, even despite the problem
that much of the world’s cobalt mines are owned by Chinese cellular interests.
And EV manufacturers are attempting to reduce then eliminate cobalt (cell companies have been increasing its use)

People will defend their pocket sized electronic gizmos to the end of the earth

 

Is Congo on the domestic or friendly nation list for battery minerals of that portion of the new EV credit? Is China a domestic assembly point for such?

There is a federal project working with the DRC government to improve these conditions.
Combatting Child Labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Cobalt Industry (COTECCO) | U.S. Department of Labor
And Biden has signed laws addressed forced labor.
https://www.state.gov/the-signing-of-the-uyghur-forced-labor-prevention-act/

It was the Department of Labor that warned of Li-ion made in China using cobalt mined by forced labor from the Congo.
U.S. shift on child labor may scramble EV sector - E&E News
"The Biden administration declared Tuesday that batteries from China may be tainted by child labor, a move that could upend the electric vehicle industry while giving fresh ammunition to critics of White House climate policies."
The last part is exactly what the Daily Caller article did. Li-ion batteries go into a lot of products, but focused just on the EVs, and brought up other policies to reduce emissions. Ford, Tesla, and other EV makers are taking steps to source cobalt from elsewhere. Their buying up untainted cobalt likely has the tainted ending up in the DC's readers phones, tablets, and tools.

The Dept of Labor also publishes lists of goods produced by child and forced labor.
https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000183-a4c1-d513-a19b-bfd53cd00000

Government and businesses are taking steps to address the issue, including the one of proving the cobalt purchased is truly untainted, as that has been a big problem in addressing the labor issue'

https://electrek.co/2022/05/09/tesla-sourcing-lithium-nickel-cobalt-directly-mines-details/
Tesla final pilot to trace DRC cobalt from mine to EVs - MINING.COM
https://electrek.co/2020/06/16/tesla-secures-cobalt-deal-controversial-material/
Ford, Huayou & LG Chem commit to ensure minerals from the Dem. Rep. of Congo are not from conflict zones or mined using child labour - Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
Ford and IBM among quartet in Congo cobalt blockchain project | Reuters

If the review was rushed, it should be redone before the project begins.

Can't tell from that commentary embellished statement. The statements from the Dept of Labor just say Li-ion batteries could have cobalt mined with child labor without mentioning EVs.
US government includes Li-ion batteries in list of goods produced by child labor - MINING.COM

 

I don't know about the DOL. but the article at the Daily Caller is poorly written, imprecise, or outright biased.

Take this quote from the article you linked:

They then go on to say:

Not all batteries are "Chinese lithium-ion" batteries. And some companies go to great lengths to avoid mines that use child labor, improve conditions, or both. For specifics, see the company's 'impact' reports.
Here is Tesla's as an example: Tesla 2021 Impact Report

Meanwhile, if you believe EVs have this issue, here are some other items with those issues, from the sources you provided:
2022-TVPRA-List-of-Goods-v3.pdf (dol.gov)
Carpets, Coal, Poppies, Salt, Blueberries, Bricks, Cotton, Garlic, Grapes, Olives, Strawberries, Tobacco, Tomatoes, Footwear, Furniture, Garments, Glass, Leather, Matches, Poultry, Shrimp, Soap, Textiles, Bananas, Citrus Fruits, Sugarcane, Granite, Gold, Silver, Tin, Zinc, ... ok, I give up, stopped at Bolivia. If you would like the whole list, go to the supplied link.

 

Per Wiki:


Given how much is produced in the Congo, those are amazing 'children.' But then who can forget:
Debunking an Absurd EV Myth: The Hit Job Against the Prius

According to an embarrassingly misinformed journalist, a 2006 Toyota Prius will use more energy and have more impact over its lifetime than a GMC Hummer H3.

Think about that. The author was seriously claiming that a hybrid, four-cylinder vehicle weighing in at just over 2,800 pounds supposedly left a bigger footprint than a 4,700-pound civilian tank.

But you know how the media work. Before the fact checkers could raise the alarm, that ridiculous story made it all the way to Jeremy Clarkson, host of the British automotive comedy Top Gear.
. . .
​

Bob Wilson

 

It is estimated that of the 255k cobalt miners. 40k are children. So they are only responsible for 10k of Congo's output.

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/drc-mining-industry-child-labor-and-formalization-small-scale-mining

 

I suspect the 'children' do not have power mining equipment. I would expect a much lower percentage.

Bob Wilson

 

I became dad's primary hay rake operator at age 9, working solo most of the day, helping to feed our country's beef supply. My younger siblings didn't start until somewhat later ages. Bale bucking started later, when we were bigger.

The tractor we used was much louder than in this video clip, my greatest regret is that dad never understood the need for ear protection, causing me tinnitus when I was still a teen:

I would guess that some of the power equipment operators are mid- to older teens, but they are a very small fraction of the miners and are not the primary concern. Even most adult miners, and almost all the children, are laboring in harsh unsafe conditions by hand only.

 

My thinking is the bulk of the cobalt is mined with power mining gear. The 'children' shown don't have the tools or super-human strength to make a significant contribution to the cobalt supply, I have no problem with ending child labor but let's get real ... how much effort do we want to spend to end it?

Bob Wilson

 

20% of DRC's cobalt production comes from artisanal mining, which is basically just a person digging a hole in the ground. Of the estimated 40,000 child miners, that is likely the 'mines' they are working. There are 255,000 cobalt miners in the DRC.

Australia's mining workforce grew to 66,000 last year. That's counting those working with cobalt, coal, lithium, opals, etc. Coal accounts for around half that. Lithium probably is the next largest fraction.

A sizable portion of the cobalt mined in the DRC was mined by human power, and some of that was effectively slave labor.

 

Blame should be shared between various industries and needs an element of common sense about what is reasonable and unreasonable.

As an example most any shrimp and seafood you find in the grocery store
that has any mention of China is likely to involve, involuntary labor .
Knowing which ones is nearly impossible as it’s a big bucket of “packaging and processing “ industries that are all over the map.

If they take an issue that cuts across hundreds of industries but only mention it as being an issue with one specific one choosing winners and losers to take the blame for a shared problem.

Then yes they are.

Cobalt mining practices are a problem spanning 5 decades and affecting many industries.

Focus should be on the owners of the mines and Cobalt industry, not just one slice of one of its consumers.

It’s amazing that nobody cared about child labor until EVs were invented

here is a common site when our “recyclables “ get sent overseas.
Children have small hands that can sort wire by colors


Fixing the problem is good but the cure shouldn’t be worse than the cause and we need to be intelligent and accountable in a broad sense.

These issues are cultural, long standing and rooted, it will take a long time to reduce and will be complicated to address.

Getting China to care about its own peoples wellbeing let alone for foreign assets it owns is challenging at best.

As others noted some industries are attempting to clean up their supply chain, which is good but I don’t expect any massive shift overnight. In some cases “technology “ may eliminate the need for Cobalt but that to is on a decades scale.

Also While we worry about child labor, other children that aren’t touching any of our industries are starving
or fighting armed ethnic and religious wars that we mostly ignore .

There are some rather large fish to fry, which ones do we choose to place our limited resources to affect?

 

I wish I could ‘Like’ this more than once!