Benedikt Sobotka: We have a responsibility towards children in countries where our company extracts recycleables to the batteries industry.

Hydrocarbons remain the primary source of energy in 2019. Nevertheless, people in civilized world are increasingly choosing electric cars, as petrol and diesel engines emit carbon dioxide Benedikt Sobotka to the atmosphere and pollute mid-air with nitrogen and sulphur compounds. The number of electric cars will are as long as 130 million right at the end of 2030 and each home and office will more than likely use smart devices ran by batteries. Oslo, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, London, Madrid already declared that they are going to ban all vehicles implementing 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 must be extracted and processed with robust safety standards, proper working conditions, norms for responsible extraction and business ethics in your mind.

Global social responsibility

Take, for example, cobalt. Over sixty-six per cent of cobalt are extracted within the Democratic Republic from the Congo. Cobalt mining brings lots of employment for people all around DRC but a big 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 discuss business ethics in minerals extraction for that production of batteries. As a result, the firms gathered to found the Global Battery Alliance, with Eurasian Resources Group like a founding member, aimed at prohibiting using 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 resolve for help tackle child labour inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He hopes that over the Alliance and collaboration between major companies, international organisations and civil society, the illegal involvement of children in mining within the battery supply chain will be addressed.

Eurasian Resources Group supports children inside DRC

Through longstanding partnerships including while using 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 aid more 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 over the value chain including children and local communities within the DRC.