this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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162
New research identifies human rights abuses in battery supply chain as most abuses involve companies in China with products that end up in batteries globally (www.theengineer.co.uk)
submitted 2 months ago by 0x815@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2963866

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  • Research from Infyos has identified that companies accounting for 75 per cent of the global battery market have connections to one or more companies in the supply chain facing allegations of severe human rights abuses.

  • Most of the allegations of severe human rights abuses involve companies mining and refining raw materials in China that end up in batteries globally, particularly in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwest China.

  • “The relative opaqueness of battery supply chains and the complexity of supply chain legal requirements means current approaches like ESG audits are out of date and don’t comply with new regulations. Most battery manufacturers and their customers, including automotive companies and grid-scale battery energy storage developers, still don’t have complete supply chain oversight," says Sarah Montgomery, CEO & co-founder, Infyos.

  • Supply chain changes are needed to eliminate widespread forced labour and child labour abuses occurring in the lithium-ion battery market, Infyos added.

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[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 17 points 2 months ago

It turns out when the vast majority of lithium comes from a country known for being iffy on the whole 'human rights' thing, this is what you get.

[–] captainastronaut@seattlelunarsociety.org 9 points 2 months ago

The rush to make batteries way outpaces the diamond industry and we all know how diamond mining turned out …

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wait until you find out that we got kids working in slaughterhouses in the here US...

But that's not slave labour.. Just kids working, no big deal. Civilization

[–] OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

wHaTaBoUt!?¹?

Also, it's a lot easier for most people to boycott American meat than it is to boycott Chinese batteries.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org -4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

fake news loving covering how savage china is. all good china is savage but we got similar behavior within US.

people should be aware that this labour abuses is not regime specific, in fact it appears to be regime agnostic. i wonder why?

[–] robotica@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

USA is trying to rid itself of corruption and slavery, China is actively promoting it. Context matters.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

USA is trying to rid itself of corruption and slavery,

That's why the states are reintroducing legal child labour....

That's why slaughterhouse and meat packing plants in the heartland are stuffed by people from the border.... And sometimes their children...

Sure buddy 🤡

[–] robotica@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The US isn't some homogenous entity where all decisions are unanimous and everybody agreed to child labour. The government has little say in what people who are allowed in to freely travel decide to do, and sometimes those people decide to do bad things.

I'm not defending the entirety of the US here, I'm just agreeing with @OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world that in this case, it is whataboutism because you are attacking the US instead of defending China.

Whataboutism or whataboutery is a pejorative for the strategy of responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation instead of a defense against the original accusation.

According to wikipedia

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why would I defend China?

Both are wrong... I don't like people acting this shit only happens in China so I am keeping the record straight that US in fact uses slave labour also.

[–] robotica@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

That's, in my opinion, a way better attidude. Let's not scream whatabaoutism, but gracefully point out the issues in (y)our own country too.