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Climate action for climate change is the buzz today because “ONE WORLD IS ALL WE HAVE”. The World is at risk. Countries, corporates, and citizens are claimed to be doing all that they can to save the Planet. Green energy is being floated as one of the top priority to solve environmental issues. We are replacing coal with hydropower, fossil fuel with solar and wind energy, petrol cars with electric vehicles (E V). E V are claimed to be cleaner, greener, and sustainable. However, what is clean for the environment may not be so. Hidden under the shiny E V is the story of blood batteries. These cars run over human right violations, child labor and extreme poverty. An electric car runs on battery to store electric charge in the form of chemical energy. These batteries are made of rare metals, namely: Lithium and Cobalt . Cobalt gives a battery stability and allows it to operate in a wide range of environmental conditions safely. It is a bluish grey color metal found in the Earth’s crust (crustal rocks). Cobalt is used in several important engineering applications, such as in jet turbine engines, mobile phone batteries, pigments and in mechanical tools. But its major use is in Lithium-ion batteries. Today more than half of the Cobalt produced globally goes to E V car batteries. Depending on design and model, each of the EV battery will use 3 kg to 30 kg of Cobalt. This metal reserve is spread wide over the World. In the current year, 70% of Cobalt supply comes from one country: Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). Congo is the second largest country in Africa with its GDP: $49 Billion. This country is surrounded with conflict, poverty, and corruption. Beneath the red earth of this country is the largest deposit of Cobalt. 92 million people live here, and out of that up to 2 million Congolese depend on Cobalt production. Cobalt mining in Congo is divided in 2 categories: Industrial / Large Scale; and Artisanal / Small scale mining. Congo’s artisanal mines are unregulated and labor laws are not enforced there. Hence, no safety protocol is applied in these mines. These artisanal mines produce 20% to 30% of total Cobalt from Congo. Some 200,000 miners are working in these mines and out of that 40,000 are children. These children encounter life threatening situations daily. They enter vertical man-made tunnels, most of them too narrow for adults to enter. Inside the tunnels are like furnace, lacking oxygen and dangerously hot. Children dig inside for the Cobalt in inhumane conditions with simple tools such as shovels or with bear hands. They have no gloves, no mask, and no work clothes. Sometimes, they have only 20 minutes worth’s oxygen, but these children go for hours inside the tunnels. After digging they pull out rocks from the tunnel, crush the findings and wash the salvable products. The collected materials are filled in the bags. They carry their mineral finding to the market to find the buyers. These artisanal miners sometimes make as little as $1 a day. Global Cobalt is a multi-billion-dollar industry today. It is estimated to be worth over $13.63billion by 2027. This money will never reach the artisanal child miners of Congo, who are spotting and extracting the metal. Many die trying to earn minimal money as artisanal miners in Congo. Between 2014 – 15, total of 80 artisanal miners died. In one single accident in 2019, 43 artisanal miners died. According to an unofficial estimate says 2,000 illegal miners die every year in Congo. Many more suffer permanent lungs damage due to exposure to cobalt, skin infection and life changing injuries. In 2019, some families from Congo filed lawsuits. They name global company like Tesla accusing them of aiding and abetting in the death of children. One lawsuit spoke about a child referred as John Doe Wang. John began working in a mine at the age of 9 as human mule carrying bags of cobalt all day and earn less than $1 per day. One day he fell into a tunnel. Fellow workers dragged him out of it and left him out alone on the ground. When his parents found out about the accident, they rushed him to hospital, but it was already too late, he was paralyzed. The doctors told them that he will never be able to walk again. What is the reason that people are desperate to work in these high-risk mines? The simple answer is poverty and hope to get out of it. Families in Congo are betting big on Cobalt mining and their chance to make a big fortune. The metal demand has tripled in the last decade. It is expected to double by 2035. The demand of cobalt is driving mainly by the exponential production increase of E V. Currently, in 2022, there are 6.5 million E V on the roads. By 2044, it is expected that there will be 66 million E V’s on the roads. By 2050, the demand for cobalt will be increased by 858% in comparison to the demand in 2022. Congo’s families want to ride on this economic wave and tide over their poverty. Sending their children is not their choice for them but it is their necessity. These children working as artisanal miners are informal workers. They are not employed by any companies. But several companies lined up to buy their cobalt ore findings. It is cheaper to buy cobalt from a child than a regulated miner. Most of these global companies dealing with blood batteries are from China. It dominates cobalt’s supply chain. China owns up to 50% of metal production. It controls around 80% of refined cobalt. In the last 15 years, Chinese companies have bought out North American and European companies mining in Congo. Today Chinese firms own 15 out of the 19 industrial mines in Congo. In exchange China have promised multi billions in investment in the form of infrastructure, schools, and roads. Today, China is leading blood cobalt into the global EV battery supply chain. Chinese companies are buying cobalt from children, and they encourage them to participate in the trade of blood cobalt. One of the largest cobalt processors of Congo is the company called C D M (Congo Dongfang Mining), it is the subsidiary of Z H C (Zhejiang Huayon Cobalt). ZHC supplied cobalt to Volkswagen, 40% coming from Congo. In 2016 a Chinese company was called out by Amnesty International, I N G O. It branded Z H C the beneficiary of the child labor. ZHC responded by pledging to clear up its act in the future. But nothing seemed to change on the ground. Amnesty’s latest report raises serious doubts. The World’s biggest car makers are in complete denial of this issue. Companies such as Tesla, Volvo, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen etc. all source their cobalt requirements from Chinese mines from Congo. They claim to have zero tolerance policy for child labor. But they too know that it is impossible to fully map the supply chain. Back in Congo, the President Phillips Sysell Kelly, has pledged to act. In 2019, he established a state-run company to focus on health and human rights. But that hardly helped. The Congolese mining ministry officials are accused of overseeing child labors. In 2020, Tesla announced it will start using cobalt free lithium-ion batteries in its E V. But the company followed the announcement deal with Glen Corp (Cobalt mining company) for the supply of 6,000 MT cobalt per year saying that the company have outsourced the controversial minerals. The whole development scenario does not add up. Much like the claim of electric cars being environmentally friendly, these cars run on dirty energy running on blood batteries. This is not a climate solution; this is human right abuse. Climate solution is not supposed to be at the expense of human lives. In summary form, electric vehicles have miles to go before they can be claimed to clean.