Electric vehicles are often labeled the “green cars” of the future but rising demand for the raw materials needed to get them on the road could increase the risk of slavery in their production, according to a risk analysis report on Tuesday.
British risk analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft said electric vehicle makers would need to be careful as they cast a wider net to source raw materials ranging from rubber to aluminum and mica needed for the 30,000 or so components in each car.
But tracing the raw materials was only one problem in the complex supply chain with an elaborate network of suppliers and transporters involved, adding risks at every stage.
“Increased exposure to human rights abuses, environmental degradation and less-than-savory governments is therefore going to be inevitable as the industry’s growth accelerates,” Maplecroft researcher Stefan Sabo-Walsh said in the report.
The report, based on data from the firm’s commodity risk service, said China was now the top producing country for about 86 percent of the key commodities in lithium-ion batteries but this was likely to change as production picks up speed.
Demand for eco-friendly electric vehicles is on the rise.
Car buyers had shunned electric vehicles because of their high cost and limited operating range until Tesla unveiled a model in 2012 that cracked 322km on one charge.
Since then, big advances in battery technology and a global crackdown on pollution in the wake of Volkswagen’s diesel scandal have raised pressure on carmakers to speed up development of zero-emission alternatives.
Paris authorities this month unveiled plans to banish all petrol and diesel-fueled cars by 2030 while the British government earlier this year said it would ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040.
Sabo-Walsh said this meant businesses would seek new source countries with reserves of key materials such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia, the Philippines and South Africa.
But in some countries it was hard to trace if their raw materials came from legal, commercial mines or from illegal smallholder mines where forced and child labour are rife.
The risks associated with lithium-ion batteries were of particular concern. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the leading global producer of cobalt used in these batteries, but has faced global criticism for human rights abuses.
The United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) estimates 40,000 children work in the warn-torn central African nation’s cobalt mines in dire conditions.
“This should provide an instant red flag for the industry operators who will increasingly face brand damage or regulatory penalties from the slew of emerging legislation addressing supply chain issues,” Sabo-Walsh said.
As well potential slavery, other risks range from corruption associated with overland transport to east African ports to potential natural hazards disrupting smelting in Indonesia.
Sabo-Walsh said a big problem for the industry and electric vehicle companies is that no laws or significant initiatives exist for the majority of the raw materials they use.
“To maintain their clean, green image, they will need to ensure every individual component required for the manufacture of their vehicles is ethically sourced and as untarnished as a new vehicle rolling off the production line,” he said.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist