The Cobalt Institute & the Pact for Sustainable Industry
The Cobalt Institute (CI) joined the European Pact for Sustainable Industry. In this interview, Susannah McLaren, Head of Responsible Sourcing & Sustainability, shares her insights on the trade associations’ support for the European Green Deal’s goal to accelerate the shift to sustainable and smart mobility in a just and inclusive way.
The von der Leyen’s Commission is moving forward to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. What role does cobalt play in the digital and green transition?
Fundamentally, the transition to zero-carbon will be enabled by a transition to new kinds of technologies, powered by metals like cobalt. Batteries will have a key role in this.
As we use more renewable electricity, we will find ourselves using batteries to store electricity when renewables are producing more than is required, then releasing it when demand outstrips supply. Cobalt will also be used in high-strength magnets, like those found in wind turbines.
E-mobility is crucial to the decarbonization of the economy and accomplishing the aims of the European Green Deal, powered by sustainable batteries. Around the world, governments are planning to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars, many by as soon as 2030. Manufacturers are rushing to produce electric vehicles that can drive ever-longer ranges on shorter charges, with batteries that work and last for a long period of time. Cobalt is an essential part of these batteries, which gives electric vehicles the range and durability that consumers need. Cobalt is also a fundamental material for the future of buildings, packaging, renewable energy, and many other crucial applications.
In the future, cobalt may also be used as a catalyst for producing zero-carbon hydrogen.
What are the challenges your sector is facing amidst Europe’s digital and green transition?
Cobalt has an essential role in achieving a zero-carbon continent by 2050, so it is all the more important to ensure that it is being responsibly sourced. While most cobalt is sourced responsibly and ethically, we know that some cobalt is connected to negative impacts. The most severe impacts predominantly relate to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), which comprises about 10-20% of cobalt coming out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which itself accounts for over 60% of the global cobalt production. ASM is not inherently bad and makes up to an important share of cobalt supply in the DRC, but it can often be associated with hazardous working conditions, unfair trading practices and, in certain instances, child labor.
A common misconception is that the sector’s challenges relating to ASM can be solved simply by shutting down this source or diverting supply chains away from the issue. But doing so would remove a lifeline for 1-2 million Congolese people living in extreme poverty who depend on ASM cobalt. Cobalt extraction through ASM, therefore, presents an opportunity to enable sustainable livelihoods, on the condition that responsible practices can be established. The formalization of ASM practices is an essential step to address the issues related to artisanal mining sites. The jobs and income created on formalized ASM sites can also help reduce extreme poverty, which is a root cause of child labor.
How are you promoting collaboration amongst companies and stakeholders operating in your sector to scale up impact on the ground?
We recognize that the only way for the sector to address these challenges and ensure that the transition to a green economy is fair and responsible is by demonstrating leadership and achieving credible outcomes on the ground. By working through a multi-stakeholder approach with key actors in the supply chain, globally and in the DRC - including the government, cooperatives and concession holders, civil society, workers, as well as companies further up the value chain – we can develop effective systems that promote responsible cobalt practices and ensure sustainable livelihoods. This is why the Cobalt Institute and its members invest significant efforts in engaging with prominent initiatives with the principal aim of putting artisanal mining in the DRC on a legitimate and transparent footing, as well as seeking to eradicate child labor by addressing the root causes of poverty. These initiatives include the Global Battery Alliance, the Cobalt Action Partnership, and the Fair Cobalt Alliance, amongst others.
Your industry federation has plans to launch a sustainability strategy. How will the strategy contribute to reaching Europe’s climate neutrality?
The Cobalt Institute is currently in the process of developing a Sustainability Roadmap with the goal of meeting our longstanding commitment to the sustainable and responsible production and use of cobalt in all forms.
To date, our biggest contribution as the knowledge center for cobalt is the crucial data that we develop for cobalt that helps inform downstream users and informs the decisions of regulators and policymakers. In 2015, the Cobalt Institute completed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of cobalt metal, which was the first of its kind in the cobalt sector. The data was incorporated into several LCA databases and can be freely accessed from the Cobalt Institute’s LCA data node through our website.
The ambitious decarbonization goals that are being set by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the automotive sector are placing increasing focus on automotive supply chains for transparency and life cycle assessment data, including for the raw materials entering these supply chains. We have commissioned an update to the 2015 LCA which, in addition to refined cobalt metal includes crude cobalt hydroxide, and two cobalt compounds used primarily in battery applications, tricobalt tetraoxide, and cobalt sulphate heptahydrate, for the reference year 2019. The industry aggregated datasets generated by the study will also inform other initiatives requiring life cycle data, for example, Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) assessments and the development of the Battery Passport by the Global Battery Alliance.
How are you aligning your sustainability strategy to the direction set by the Commission? What top 3 EU policy priorities are you engagING on?
The Cobalt Institute is the voice of the cobalt industry on all cobalt-related issues and challenges relating to sustainability. As a crucial part of the green economy, we take an interest in ensuring it is sourced and used responsibly and sustainably.
The key areas the Cobalt Institute is looking at include:
Responsible sourcing and due diligence – we recognize the shared responsibility industries and governments have to work together on responsible sourcing. We are pushing the EU to take more far-reaching and ambitious steps to support the responsible sourcing of cobalt, for example, expanding existing proposals for batteries to cover all cobalt uses in Europe. We are also advocating for better alignment of due diligence requirements in the EU Batteries Legislation and the horizontal environment and human rights due diligence legislation - currently known as the Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative.
Batteries and the green economy – the EU’s Batteries Regulation is an attempt to create a circular economy for batteries, with clear traceability mechanisms for responsible sourcing and CO2 emissions. We support many of the principles outlined in the legislation but are pushing for it to be more ambitious in a number of ways, including for example on responsible sourcing and the sorts of batteries proposed for recycling.
Data – the Cobalt Institute is gathering data on the lifetime CO2 emissions of cobalt amongst other things, in order to help the Commission to make decisions based on the best available scientific information.
For more information:
Contact Marco Matrisciano, Project Manager
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