U.S. Acknowledges Child Labour in Electric Vehicle Supply Chain

The federal government has, for the first time, included crucial raw materials needed for the clean energy transition under a list of goods that have child or forced labour in their supply chains. The inclusion of these materials in the report is meant to "[draw] attention to critical supply chains in clean energy," Thea Mei Lee, the Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs, said in a foreword to the report. The market for cobalt, in particular, is already growing astronomically as the electric vehicle market expands: demand for cobalt increased by 22% in 2021, while some estimates say it could grow 30% by 2025. The labour practices surrounding both these materials have serious issues. Last year, the U.S. banned the import of polysilicon from certain companies in China in order to crack down on the horrific labour practices of that supply chain. The import of products containing cobalt from the DRC remains unregulated - and experts told E&E News in March that they don't expect to see a similar crackdown on cobalt products. The Biden administration has been working to boost battery production to jumpstart the clean energy revolution, while simultaneously staying mostly silent on how it plans to deal with the problematic labour and environmental practices of mining for materials used in these batteries.