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

Hydrocarbons remain the key method to obtain energy in 2019. Nevertheless, people in civilized world have become increasingly choosing electric cars, as petrol and diesel engines emit skin tightening and Sobotka Benedikt into the atmosphere and pollute air with nitrogen and sulphur compounds. The number of electric cars will reach up to 130 million in the end of 2030 each home and office will probably use smart devices ran by batteries. Oslo, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, London, Madrid already stated that they are going to ban all vehicles implementing petrol or diesel fuel in central areas. The way things 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 your mind.

Global social responsibility

Take, for instance, cobalt. Over two thirds of cobalt are extracted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Cobalt mining brings a significant amount of employment for individuals all around DRC but a sizable percentage could 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 to the production of batteries. As a result, nokia’s gathered to found the Global Battery Alliance, with Eurasian Resources Group as a founding member, targeted at 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 persistence for help tackle child labour within the Democratic Republic from 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 the battery supply chain will probably be addressed.

Eurasian Resources Group supports children inside the DRC

Through longstanding partnerships including with the 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 compliment a lot more than 10,000 students through its educational initiatives within the DRC.

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