News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Cobalt for electric car batteries mined by children?

Posted: 30 Sep 2016 02:56 AM PDT

Electric car makers may be unwittingly using African child labour to produce batteries for electric vehicles, Amnesty International says.

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London - Leading electric car makers may be unwittingly using child labour to produce batteries for electric vehicles, Amnesty International said on Friday.

The human rights watchdog said cobalt used in lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles, phones and laptops could come from mines in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that use child labour.

It accused carmakers including GM, Renault-Nissan, Fiat Chrysler, Volkswagen, Daimler and Tesla of failing to map the supply of cobalt from mines in Congo to smelters and on to battery-makers.

As a result, electric cars sold across the globe could contain traces of the metal produced each year by informal Congolese mines without companies knowing, the group said.

"We have found that there is significant risk that cobalt mined by children could be entering their supply chains," said Mark Dummett, human rights researcher at Amnesty.

Due to the growing demand for lithium ion batteries in electric cars and consumer goods like cellphones, Dummett said carmakers had an obligation to trace their supply chain to ensure children were not used to mine cobalt.

"Frankly companies owe it to their consumer to be transparent about their supplies and to map out their supply chains so that they know where it's coming from," he said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

More than half of the world's cobalt comes from DRC, Amnesty said, and 20 percent of the mineral was mined by hand.

Millions of Congolese work in informal mining, with rudimentary tools and usually without legal authorisation. They often scavenge in the waste heaps of larger mines.

Congo's supply of metals such as tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold has been under scrutiny since 2010, when laws in the United States required US-listed companies to ensure their supply chain was free from these so-called "conflict minerals".

But cobalt has received scant regulatory attention, although Congo, where dozens of armed groups roam its lawless eastern region, is the source of more than half of global supply.

Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen (VW) told the Thomson Reuters Foundation it was investigating whether cobalt in their electric car batteries was mined in DRC.

"To our best knowledge, the cobalt in our batteries does not originate from the respective sources from DRC. To our best knowledge we had no human rights abuses in our cobalt supply chain," VW spokeswoman Leslie Bothge said.

Electric carmaker and energy storage company, Tesla said there was "very little" cobalt in its batteries, adding that going deep into their supply chain to investigate the use of child labour was "both unusual and challenging".

"We have asked the company in the DRC that produces this trace amount of cobalt deep down within our supply chain to provide written documentation directly to us concerning their practices," Tesla spokesman Alexis Georgeson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "That documentation confirms that child or compulsory labour or human trafficking are prohibited."

GM said in a statement it has a "zero-tolerance policy" on child labour and other unethical business practices, requiring written compliance from its suppliers.

Mercedes maker Daimler also told the Thomson Reuters Foundation it was investigating the "processes and measures taken by our suppliers to prevent such alleged practices in their upstream supply chains."

But Amnesty's Dummett said although many electric carmakers had human rights policies, they were not willing to publicly disclose the steps they were taking, if any, to actively prevent child labour in their supply chains.

Electric car prototypes and plans are growing in popularity, and dominating this year's Paris auto show, as falling battery costs persuade executives and investors that plug-in vehicles are ready to go mainstream.

The Climate Action Tracker, a leading body that monitors government actions on climate, said the last gasoline-powered car will have to be sold by about 2035 to put the world on track to limit global warming.

Last December, world leaders at a Paris summit set a goal of limiting a rise in temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times while "pursuing efforts" for a much tougher 1.5 C ceiling.

"We're not saying people shouldn't buy these electric cars," said Dummet. "But consumers who buy them should expect that these hugely wealthy companies... absolutely have the capacity to do this due diligence to map out their supply chain."

The Thomson Reuters Foundation

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Africa finds its voice at CITES

Posted: 30 Sep 2016 02:27 AM PDT

While Africa may not see eye-to-eye on ivory trade, the continent is increasingly taking a longer-term, regional view., a UN expert says.

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Johannesburg - As host nation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and flora (CITES) CoP17 conference, South Africa has prioritised its national agenda: issues around lion, rhino and elephant.

These are 'sexier' discussions than the under-threat Rosewood and African cherry trees, or the ancient pangolin, Director: Division of Environmental Law and Conventions at the United Nations Environment Programme Elizabeth Mrema said.

They also highlight both a friction in intra-African interests and increased collaboration.

At the CoP17 South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia jointly called to sell ivory stockpiles, one-off permission which Mrema explains was previously given in 1989 and in 1997, under extremely tight regulation.

The proposal was rejected, however, with West and Central African countries, in particular, objecting that "any sort of trade opens up to illegal trafficking and trade".

While Africa may not see eye-to-eye on ivory trade, Mrema said the continent was increasingly taking a longer-term, regional view.

Ahead of CITES, African countries met to discuss on which they agreed and disagreed, she said. Sticking points were elephants and rhino. Common ground was the need to manage wildlife sustainably.

There are issues Africa needs to deal with together, said Kenya-based Mrema. These include issues of enforcement, monitoring and local communities. The latter is being pushed at CoP17 by Africa, which proposed the establishment of a permanent committee under CITES to deal with local community issues.

The proposal was rejected for reasons around finance and fears of diluting CITES' focus on species.

"South Africa, and the whole of the Southern Africa Development Community, has been very vocal on the role of local communities [and] how we support local communities so they also support us in the management of wildlife," said Mrema.

"All agree that local communities have a role. Yes, they are important, but outside CITES."

African News Agency

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Raul Castro meets African leaders

Posted: 30 Sep 2016 01:39 AM PDT

Cuban President Raul Castro met with leaders of Lesotho and Namibia to boost relations and co-operation with the African nations.

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Havana - Cuban President Raul Castro on Thursday met with leaders of Lesotho and Namibia to boost relations and cooperation with the African nations, according to a government statement.

Castro met with Prime Minister of Lesotho Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili at the presidential palace where they exchanged views on bilateral relations and expressed their will to strengthen ties with further co-operation in areas such as health, education and sports.

During his-four day visit to Cuba, Mosisili met with various government officials, signed a number of cooperation agreements and visited students from his nation studying in the island country.

More than 50 students from Lesotho are studying in Cuba now, while Havana currently has medical and educational advisors in the African nation. Cuba established diplomatic relations in 1979 with Lesotho, a landlocked small country completely surrounded by South Africa.

Castro also held talks with Sam Nujoma, the first president of Namibia and an anti-apartheid activist, who is also visiting the island to further strengthen relations between the two countries.

Nujoma was a founding member and the first president of the South-West Africa People's Organization and played an important role as leader of the national liberation movement in campaigning for Namibia's independence from South African rule.

Xinhua

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Moroccan fog harvesting project wins UN award

Posted: 30 Sep 2016 01:08 AM PDT

A Moroccan fog harvesting project has won the 2016 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Momentum for Change Award, local media reported.

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Rabat - A Moroccan fog harvesting project on Thursday won the 2016 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Momentum for Change Award, local media reported.

The project provides accessible potable water to more than 400 people in five villages, most of them women and children, the UNFCCC secretariat said in a press release.

Dar Si Hmad, a women-led NGO in Morocco, designed and installed what is now the world's largest operational fogwater harvesting system, the UNFCCC said.

"It is an innovative solution to persistent water stress where fog is abundant, a technique inspired from ancient water practices," it noted.

The project is a successful model of a locally-driven, participatory climate change adaptation initiative, providing an environmentally friendly water source to combat the effects of desertification, the UNFCCC said.

Each of the 13 winning activities touches on one of Momentum for Change's three focus areas: women for results, financing for climate friendly investment and ICT solutions.

All 13 will be showcased at a series of special events during the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco in November.

Xinhua

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