Cobalt and the sacrifice of African children on the green altar
by Lucy Wyatt, TCW:
COBALT is essential to modern technology. All sorts of electronic devices rely on it, along with other elements such as lithium. Solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs) wouldn’t function without them. While the environmental degradation associated with both lithium and cobalt extraction is well established, the issues around cobalt are even more poignant because of the manner in which it is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A new book, Cobalt Red: How the blood of the Congo powers our lives, published in January this year, details the human suffering, especially of children, directly involved in the mining. Written by a Nottingham University professor, Siddartha Kara, from first-hand knowledge gained by visiting the Congo, this is a book that should be required reading for every local authority that is implementing the Net Zero agenda. (You can read a review here). Professor Kara is a British Academy Global Professor and Rights Lab Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery. He advises several UN agencies and numerous governments on anti-slavery policy and the law. We should take him seriously.
What happens in the Congo matters because it is the largest producer of cobalt, accounting for 70 per cent of global production. In 2022 there was a reported output of 130,000 tonnes; the next largest producer, Russia, mined 8,900 tonnes.
At a time when there is growing realisation of the plight of the children of the world, when more people are becoming aware of the Sound of Freedom (the film about child trafficking), it is impossible to reconcile what is happening in the Congo with saving the planet through the use of renewables and other technology. It is not acceptable that children should be sacrificed for us to live in our own little tech-enhanced eco-bubbles.
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