Benedikt Sobotka: We have a responsibility towards children in countries where our company extracts unprocessed trash for the batteries industry.

Hydrocarbons remain the principle way to obtain energy in 2019. Nevertheless, people in civilized world are increasingly choosing electric cars, as petrol and diesel engines emit carbon dioxide Sobotka Benedikt in the atmosphere and pollute air with nitrogen and sulphur compounds. The number of electric cars will are as long as 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 stated that they will ban all vehicles implementing 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 have to be extracted and processed with robust safety standards, proper working conditions, norms for responsible extraction and business ethics in mind.

Global social responsibility

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

In 2017, world leading companies including BASF, Enel and Volkswagen met on the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos to debate business ethics in minerals extraction for that creation of batteries. As a result, the companies gathered to found the Global Battery Alliance, with Eurasian Resources Group like a founding member, directed at prohibiting the use of child labour and promoting battery recycling to raise the sustainability from the industry.

The CEO of Eurasian Resources Group, Benedikt Sobotka reiterated the business’s persistence for 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 kids in mining inside battery supply chain will probably be addressed.

Eurasian Resources Group supports children inside the DRC

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

In 2018 and early 2019, ERG continued to compliment greater than 10,000 students through its educational initiatives in the DRC.

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