The extraction and processing of materials used in EV manufacture, such as lithium, manganese and bauxite, are rapidly expanding, posing a test for company policies that tout respect for human rights and the environment. Teslas in a lot at the Shanghai plant in June 2022. “But the auto companies are not giving much hope they are willing to do anything to make a difference.” “We know from every other industry there is that if we don’t fix this now, in the early days of this transition, it will be a massive mistake,” said Duncan Jepson, a lawyer and supply-chain management expert. Many experts warn that companies are failing to ensure that their supply chains are free of forced labor, washing their hands of responsibility for upstream suppliers they shrug off as out of their managerial reach. The contracts and accountability measures they lock in now could affect communities around the world for decades. The situation in Xinjiang is a key point of tension in the strained relationship between China and the West, as the United States and allies step up enforcement of penalties on industries operating there.ĮVs are widely considered vital for confronting climate change, and the companies that make them are at an inflection point. law come as the White House and powerful congressional committees scrutinize the EV industry, which is booming as automakers race to gain the upper hand in the transition to climate-friendly battery-powered engines. The companies’ kid-glove approach on China and potential violations of U.S. Among them are companies that have openly complied with China’s quotas for moving minority Muslim Uyghurs out of rural villages and into factory towns through what Chinese authorities call “labor transfers” or “surplus labor employment.” ban on products made in Xinjiang emerge near the top of Tesla’s sprawling network of suppliers, according to a Washington Post examination of corporate records and Chinese media reports. Tesla boasts that its electric vehicles are a marvel not just of innovation but also ethics, pledging in annual reports that it will “not knowingly accept products or services from suppliers that include forced labour or human trafficking in any form.” The carmaker touts its teams of monitors that travel to mining operations around the world, and has pledged to mount a camera at an African mine to prevent the use of underage or slave labor.īut Tesla has been conspicuously silent when it comes to China, despite evidence that materials that go into its vehicles come from the Xinjiang region, where forced labor has been rampant. Halper covers energy for The Washington Post’s business desk. With the help of researchers, he pieced together hundreds of financial disclosures, company communications, social media postings, reports from Xinjiang news outlets and contracts to reach the findings in this project. While BMW has "improved in some aspects" and scored the best among the automakers, the luxury brand continued to show "significant shortcomings." Volkswagen and Daimler also had "significant deficiencies," Amnesty said.Reporter Evan Halper spent months mapping the opaque China-based supply chains behind the production of millions of electric vehicles. The German car industry is also guilty, according to its report. Read more: Migrants: More than 75 percent of Europe-bound youth face exploitation The rights group said none of the 29 companies investigated adequately complied with their due diligence obligations to disclose and suppress human rights violations. HasanĪmnesty said children as young as seven were risking their lives and their health to meet the demand for cobalt, due to the growth of battery use in electric cars, smartphones and renewable energy. In the developing world, children are still often put to work in hazardous conditions Image: picture alliance/ZUMA Press/M. In its report, Time to Recharge, the human rights group named Microsoft, Renault and China's Huawei among others as beneficiaries of child labor. Read more: Invisible Hands - Slavery in the 21st Century Ryder's call came as Amnesty International detailed how almost half of the world's 28 largest companies still use cobalt metal that is mined by child labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for use in batteries. The conference, the fourth of its kind, on Tuesday restated its target of ending child labor by 2025. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 videoĪccording to the latest ILO estimates, there are some 152 million child workers and 25 million victims of forced labor worldwide.
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