Benedikt Sobotka: We have a responsibility towards children in countries where us extracts garbage for that batteries industry.

Hydrocarbons remain the main method to obtain energy in 2019. Nevertheless, people in developed countries are now increasingly choosing electric cars, as petrol and diesel engines emit skin tightening and www.businesscloud.co.uk into the atmosphere and pollute mid-air with nitrogen and sulphur compounds. The number of electric cars will reach up to 130 million right at the end of 2030 every home and office may use smart devices ran by batteries. Oslo, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, London, Madrid already declared that they are going to ban all vehicles taking care of petrol or diesel fuel in central areas. The way the situation is going, batteries will replace the environmentally damaging coal and oil as fuel sources.

Minerals for batteries has to be extracted and processed with robust safety standards, proper working conditions, norms for responsible extraction and business ethics planned.

Global social responsibility

Take, as an illustration, cobalt. Over 60 % of cobalt are extracted in the Democratic Republic in the Congo. Cobalt mining brings a significant amount of employment for people all around DRC but a large percentage might be tainted by illegal child labour.

In 2017, world leading companies including BASF, Enel and Volkswagen met in the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos to talk about business ethics in minerals extraction for that manufacture of batteries. As a result, the companies gathered to found the Global Battery Alliance, with Eurasian Resources Group as being a founding member, geared towards prohibiting using child labour and promoting battery recycling to increase the sustainability with the industry.

The CEO of Eurasian Resources Group, Benedikt Sobotka reiterated the business’s persistence for help tackle child labour in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He hopes that from the Alliance and collaboration between major companies, international organisations and civil society, the illegal involvement of kids in mining in the battery supply chain is going to be addressed.

Eurasian Resources Group supports children inside the DRC

Through longstanding partnerships including using the Good Shepherd Sisters and Pact, Eurasian Resources Group targets helping tackle child labour and strengthen child protection norms.

In 2018 and early 2019, ERG continued to support over 10,000 students through its educational initiatives inside the DRC.

Benedikt Sobotka, CEO of Eurasian Resources Group, holds that the global battery sector should confer benefits to its participants throughout the value chain including children and local communities in the DRC.