"The COVID-19 pandemic focused attention on the importance of supply chains. One of the key supply chains was in the battery-metals industry.
There are real and significant problems in the supply chain of cobalt, a critical battery mineral. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is one of the world's poorest nations, produces about 70% of the world's cobalt. Close to 10–30% of this cobalt comes from artisanal miners, mostly operating illegally. Some of them are children, often in abusive labor conditions. These miners typically have little to no training or protective gear.
The DRC's cobalt is critical to achieving the energy transition's pathway of limiting global temperature increase to below 2°C (or at 1.5°C) by 2050. To hasten the transition, the world wants products that can be made greener through rechargeable battery technologies. Battery storage, together with renewable energy like wind, solar, bioenergy, etc., is key to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement."
Read this article by Akua Debrah, consultant at Sustainable Development Strategies Group (SDSG), and Luke Danielson, president of SDSG and former ASES member...
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Kat Friedrich
Editor in Chief
American Solar Energy Society
Monona WI
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