The global scramble for minerals such as lithium, nickel, zinc and cobalt needed to make EV batteries and renewable technologies is fueling human rights abuses at mines around the world, a new report says.
More than 90 claims of abuse were recorded across the world last year — from violations of environmental protections to the rights of Indigenous peoples — adding to hundreds of cases that have already emerged since 2010, according to a report that U.K.-based Business & Human Rights Resource Centre released on Thursday.
The report’s authors say the findings underscore the need for the U.S. and the European Union to ensure that any deals forged with mineral-rich countries uphold the highest social and environmental safeguards, and for companies to push those efforts internally.
Caroline Avan, a lead author of the report who heads the Centre’s natural resources and just energy transition program, said that even though policies aimed at curbing demand for new mines need to be considered, more minerals will be needed at scale. At the same time, the report shows how extraction of those materials is linked to a “damning number” of human rights abuses, she said, including violations of the right of local communities to a clean environment and threats to Indigenous peoples’ rights and livelihoods.
