A report released by the London-based Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) revealed that these supply chains provide batteries to major companies such as Panasonic, Tesla and Toyota.

The lack of transparency in EV battery supply chains allows end-user companies to distance themselves from lower-level abuses and evade responsibility for associated risks, according to the BHRRC's report titled "Powering Electric Vehicles."

The BHRRC identified the Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corporation (Rio Tuba) in the Philippines, as well as Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (ZHC) and CNGR Advanced Materials (CNGR), two Chinese companies operating in Indonesia, as responsible for the "rising incidents of human and environmental rights violations."

"The human rights abuses in electric vehicle supply chains need to be urgently interrogated and mitigated … and supply chain transparency and accountability must be at the heart of this," said Pochoy Labog, the BHRRC's Southeast Asia researcher.

The mining operations of these companies have had detrimental effects on local communities, including the loss of food security, destruction of rainforests, water contamination, harm to marine life and health-related problems such as respiratory issues.

Additionally, the BHRRC stated that the companies failed to obtain free, prior consent from indigenous communities before mining their lands.

Negative consequences of mining are evident

The mining and processing companies involved in these supply chains have refuted the claims made by the BHRRC, stating that their activities do not significantly impact the environment and that their own investigations have not found any rights violations.

However, the report highlights the negative consequences of these mining operations in various regions.

In Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, forests are being destroyed, mine tailings have contaminated rivers and streams, and coral reefs are being affected by the contaminated waters.

In Palawan, the Philippines, Rio Tuba's mining operations have led to water contamination, loss of food security and the destruction of rainforests.

Locals have reported health issues such as coughs and respiratory diseases, prompting water quality tests that revealed the presence of hexavalent chromium, a human carcinogen, in river water samples.

Greenpeace Philippines country director Lea Guerrero said mining is unsustainable since "extractive activity itself is highly destructive."

"We need to change how we use materials as a society," she told BenarNews. "Many mining concessions are located in islands where many biodiversity and ecosystems are destroyed just to extract minerals."

Indonesia, the world's largest producer of nickel, with 21 million metric tons (4.6 billion pounds) in proven reserves, and the Philippines, ranking fifth in reserves but second in nickel production with 330,000 metric tons (728 million pounds) in 2022, play crucial roles in the global nickel market.

"As the globe transitions to these cleaner sources of energy, companies must recognise their role in mitigating the endemic human rights issues in EV battery supply chains - and must use their leverage to hold suppliers accountable for risks in their value chains," BHRRC said.

Sources

Radio Free Asia

Business Green

CathNews New Zealand

The Russia-Ukraine war isn't a war of military combat between armies using weapons, she explains.

It's something else. She speaks of massacres. Of dead children. Dead civilians. Of repression and brutal sexual assaults on women and children.

Sister Ligy Payyappilly sees a lot of refugees fleeing the conflict in the east of Ukraine. She lives in a western town near the Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian and Romanian borders.

Her information is probably accurate and fresh. It's garnered from refugees. Her convent and other religious houses in western Ukraine have been housing refugees since the war began. Most refugees are women and children.

Payyappilly says press reports of Russian human rights abuses and war crimes committed by Russian troops in areas they control are true.

"Is it what we call war?" she asks.

"Shooting innocent men point blank, raping young women and mothers in front of their children, brutally injuring the pregnant women? How can these people become so cruel?

"Here women and girls have recounted the abuse they are suffering at the hands of Russian soldiers. Women are grappling with the threat of rape as a weapon of war."

Payyappilly recounts horror story after horror story. Rapes. Children exposed to supreme evil. Wickedness. Hideous deaths. Mass killings.

"I do not know how many days it will take to bury them," she says of all the dead.

"This is butchering of the innocents. No civilised society can approve it."

Ukraine is living its Way of the Cross - but still has hope

"Since February 24, this war has become our Good Friday," Payyappilly says.

"We know that Jesus went up from Pilate to Golgotha, his face and clothes covered in blood - the same is happening today in Ukraine; the blood of the innocent is everywhere.

"Truly, here we can meet many mothers who mourn their children just as Mary suffered before the Cross for her beloved Son... the more this war goes on, the more innocent people will die. Today Golgotha is really in Ukraine.

"But we know that Easter comes after Good Friday. We believe and know that God is with us. Easter will come for us too; our sufferings will end.

"Let us pray that the dawn of the Resurrection may come for us too. Jesus died for us. He knows our sufferings and can understand us. We are waiting for our Easter, especially for Ukraine, an Easter of hope and peace."

There's something else she's concerned about too: Ukraine and Russia, two predominantly Orthodox nations with much shared history, are now at war.

"People of God fighting each other. Brothers separated in peace, now fighting to conquer the other. It is heartbreaking," she says.

Source

• Crux
• Image: 1News