Benedikt Sobotka: We have a responsibility towards children in countries where our company extracts recycleables for your batteries industry.
Hydrocarbons remain the primary way to obtain energy in 2019. Nevertheless, people in developed countries are now increasingly choosing electric cars, as petrol and diesel engines emit carbon dioxide Sobotka Benedikt into the atmosphere and pollute the air with nitrogen and sulphur compounds. The number of electric cars will are as long as 130 million in the end of 2030 and each home and office will probably use smart devices ran by batteries. Oslo, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, London, Madrid already asserted that they are going to ban all vehicles taking care of petrol or diesel fuel in central areas. The way situations are 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 at heart.
Global social responsibility
Take, as an example, cobalt. Over 2 / 3 of cobalt are extracted in the Democratic Republic in the Congo. Cobalt mining brings lots of employment for those all over DRC but a sizable percentage might be tainted by illegal child labour.
In 2017, world leading companies including BASF, Enel and Volkswagen met with the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos to talk about business ethics in minerals extraction to the output 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 the use of child labour and promoting battery recycling to improve the sustainability with the industry.
The CEO of Eurasian Resources Group, Benedikt Sobotka reiterated the business’s dedication to help tackle child labour inside the Democratic Republic with the Congo. He hopes that over the Alliance and collaboration between major companies, international organisations and civil society, the illegal involvement of youngsters in mining in the battery supply chain will likely be addressed.
Eurasian Resources Group supports children inside DRC
Through longstanding partnerships including while using Good Shepherd Sisters and Pact, Eurasian Resources Group is targeted on helping tackle child labour and strengthen child protection norms.
In 2018 and early 2019, ERG continued to support more than 10,000 students through its educational initiatives inside DRC.
Benedikt Sobotka, CEO of Eurasian Resources Group, holds the global battery sector should confer benefits to its participants across the value chain including children and local communities within the DRC.