Benedikt Sobotka made a stand against child labour at cobalt mines

Benedikt Sobotka: We have a responsibility towards children in countries where us extracts recycleables for your batteries industry.

Hydrocarbons remain the main supply of energy in 2019. Nevertheless, people in civilized world are actually increasingly choosing electric cars, as petrol and diesel engines emit fractional co2 businesscasestudies.co.uk into the atmosphere and pollute the environment with nitrogen and sulphur compounds. The number of electric cars will are as long as 130 million by the end of 2030 every home and office will likely use smart devices ran by batteries. Oslo, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, London, Madrid already declared that they are going to ban all vehicles taking care of petrol or diesel fuel in central areas. The way things are going, batteries will replace the environmentally damaging coal and oil as fuel sources.

Minerals for batteries have 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 example, cobalt. Over 60 % of cobalt are extracted in the Democratic Republic in the Congo. Cobalt mining brings a lot 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 at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos to go over business ethics in minerals extraction to the manufacture of batteries. As a result, nokia’s joined together to found the Global Battery Alliance, with Eurasian Resources Group like a founding member, aimed at prohibiting the use of child labour and promoting battery recycling to increase the sustainability with the industry.

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

Eurasian Resources Group supports children inside DRC

Through longstanding partnerships including with all the Good Shepherd Sisters and Pact, Eurasian Resources Group targets helping tackle child labour and strengthen child protection norms.

In 2018 and early 2019, ERG continued to compliment greater than 10,000 students through its educational initiatives within the DRC.

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

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