Is green energy really green?
By: Victoriya Shirota
Tags: Green Energy, Climate Change, Environmnet, Human Rights, Sustainability

Congolese children are working for less than 1$ per day

What do you know about EVs? Or about sustainability and green tech? I am sure that these concepts do not link in your mind with child labour, pollution and massive human rights abuse. But in reality, implementation of green technologies, EVs, in particular, implies rare earth metals mining in a fierce way. This Christmas I want you to think about these issues and possible solutions.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the main supplier of cobalt. Famous for its child labour, political unrest and unspeakable conditions miners are living in. Some of them are just 7 years old.

“UNICEF estimates that about 40,000 boys and girls work as artisanal miners in southern DRC, many of who extract cobalt. Some artisanal miners use chisels and other hand tools to dig holes tens of metres deep, often without any permit. Many children we spoke to told us that they were frequently ill. Inhaling cobalt dust can cause hard metal lung disease — a potentially fatal condition. Skin contact with cobalt can cause dermatitis — a chronic rash. Yet the children and other miners have neither masks nor gloves to protect them.”

Indonesia is the main supplier for Nickel. The nickel mining produces a lot of toxic waste which is simply throwing away in the ocean, killing corals and marine life.

“At the Ramu nickel project in Papua New Guinea, similar to the ones under construction in Indonesia, a Chinese-owned smelter deposits 5 million tons of waste into the sea each year, a fraction of the waste planned in Indonesia. Last year, a coastal spill there turned oceans a crimson red. A research team found that mass fish deaths, concentrations of heavy metals, and never-before-seen arsenic bacteria “mud” resulted from inadequate waste management linked to this practice.”

Mexico is the main supplier of manganese. The manganese mining leads to the massive air and water pollution in the local residential areas, leading to chronic intoxication and high death rate among the population, especially among the young children.

“Sixty per cent of the adults who live near the mines present neurological problems and trembling similar to the effects of Parkinson’s disease. In the case of the children near the mines, it was found that their intellectual and learning abilities are 20 per cent lower than the comparable group that does not live near any mines.”

All these metals are crucial for the batteries production, but giants like Tesla or Apple do not implement sufficient way to address the issue. Moreover, these companies just on their way to establishing a smooth recycling system for their used batteries. Simply speaking, most of the used batteries are damped in the ocean.

As you can see, our world is far from equal opportunities for everybody. Our life in developed countries is comfortable because of child labour and oppression somewhere in the less developed part of the world. Yes, we can decrease CO2 emission, but we still do not get rid of neocolonial and imperialistic way to have a business.

Of course, the progress was made, and from last year, Tesla, with some other multinationals were suited for child rights abuse by Congolese mining families. It is an important step, but the world needs a complex and sustainable solution.

PJP Eye.

Honestly speaking, when I was told about Cambrian batteries, my first thought was about another startup trying to improve existing technology. But reality seems to be much deeper and more interesting than that.

Carbon batteries (Cambrian batteries) are safe, non-explosive, disposable and made from organic materials. These batteries have a life circle for more than 10 years and charging time is 5 times faster than traditional lithium batteries. But high performance is not the thing only.

PJP Eye team is passionate about social enterprise. This means granting access to electricity for the developing nations. As you know, constant blackouts are the main problem for many regions in the world. Together with poverty these countries loss 100 billion of dollars every year from blackouts only.

Constant access to electricity means access to education, medical care and opportunities for small businesses to operate. Also, PJP Eye provides power banks for natural disaster areas, saving people lives.

From December 2020 PJP Eye signed Fair Trade agreement, which obliges the company to check the source of supply of materials on the ground of any human rights abuse. Carbon batteries do not need rare earth metals and this helps to stop its mining and prevent pollution and human exploitation. But even cotton, used in Cambrian batteries comes from reliable sources, avoiding any human rights ussies including slavery, underpay, dangerous working conditions, etc. (for example, cotton from Uzbekistan was not supplied for PJP Eye products)

When I met the PJP Eye team, I asked myself: do they have a charity program or is it a part of their strategy in the market? Actually, social enterprise is a company’s policy, the main part of the whole business ecosystem in long run.

So, from now on when I have heard about green energy, I always think about smart strategy, aiming to bring real solutions from CO2 reduction to human rights and environment protection. I am glad, that PJP Eye can bring these solutions.