Amnesty International is calling for “ethical batteries” to be produced for electric vehicles (EVs) within five years— and for a crackdown to prevent human rights abuses in raw materials mining.
Amnesty secretary-general Kumi Naidoo said a “drastic overhaul” of energy sources was needed “that prioritises protection of human rights and the environment”.
Naidoo told the Nordic EV Summit in Oslo: “Consumers have the right to demand that products marketed as the ethical choice really stand up to scrutiny.”
According to Naidoo, there is “still no requirement on companies to publicly report on cobalt supply chains, despite the use of child miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo”.
“Without radical changes, the batteries that power green vehicles will continue to be tainted by human rights abuses,” Naidoo added.
The human rights watchdog is now working with Greenpeace USA to “identify and map human rights and environmental impacts throughout the battery lifecycle, including vital points of intervention needed to produce an ethical battery”.
In addition, Amnesty said moves are under way “to create a legal requirement on corporations to conduct human rights due diligence”— including those involved in the batteries supply chain.
Amnesty said it would campaign for battery products to be designed and regulated so that their potential for re-use is optimised, “waste is penalised and illegal or dangerous exportation and dumping of batteries is prevented”.
“As a first step, companies should publicly disclose information about how human rights abuses and environmental risks are being prevented, identified and addressed throughout the lithium-ion battery’s lifecycle,” Amnesty said.
BEST Battery Briefing reported earlier this year that tech giant IBM had teamed up with battery maker LG Chem, the Ford Motor Company and others to use blockchain technology “to trace and validate ethically-sourced materials” for batteries and other products.