Benedikt Sobotka: We have a responsibility towards children in countries where us extracts garbage to the batteries industry.

Hydrocarbons remain the key method to obtain energy in 2019. Nevertheless, people in developed countries have become increasingly choosing electric cars, as petrol and diesel engines emit carbon dioxide www.businessfirstonline.co.uk into the atmosphere and pollute the air with nitrogen and sulphur compounds. The number of electric cars will are 130 million by the end of 2030 and each home and office may use smart devices ran by batteries. Oslo, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, London, Madrid already asserted that they’re going to ban all vehicles implementing petrol or diesel fuel in central areas. The way situations are going, batteries will replace the environmentally damaging coal and oil as fuel sources.

Minerals for batteries has to be extracted and processed with robust safety standards, proper working conditions, norms for responsible extraction and business ethics planned.

Global social responsibility

Take, for instance, cobalt. Over sixty-six per cent of cobalt are extracted inside Democratic Republic with the Congo. Cobalt mining brings lots of employment for those around DRC but a big percentage may be tainted by illegal child labour.

In 2017, world leading companies including BASF, Enel and Volkswagen met with the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos to talk about business ethics in minerals extraction to the manufacture of batteries. As a result, the firms came together to found the Global Battery Alliance, with Eurasian Resources Group as being a founding member, targeted at prohibiting the usage of child labour and promoting battery recycling to improve the sustainability with the industry.

The CEO of Eurasian Resources Group, Benedikt Sobotka reiterated the business’s commitment to help tackle child labour in the Democratic Republic from the Congo. He hopes that with the Alliance and collaboration between major companies, international organisations and civil society, the illegal involvement of youngsters in mining in the battery supply chain will probably be addressed.

Eurasian Resources Group supports children inside the DRC

Through longstanding partnerships including using the Good Shepherd Sisters and Pact, Eurasian Resources Group focuses on helping tackle child labour and strengthen child protection norms.

In 2018 and early 2019, ERG continued to aid over 10,000 students through its educational initiatives in the DRC.

Benedikt Sobotka, CEO of Eurasian Resources Group, holds that the global battery sector should confer benefits to its participants through the value chain including children and local communities in the DRC.