MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd July, 2021) Car companies must do more to combat human rights violations in their aluminum supply chains, as the transition to electric vehicles is expected to double their aluminum usage by 2050, a prominent rights group said on Thursday.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the impact on rights inherent to aluminum production, from the destruction of farmland and damage to water sources caused by mines and refineries, to the significant carbon emissions from aluminum smelting, have not been adequately addressed by car companies.
Aluminum production is presently responsible for more than one billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually � around 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2019, a government study projected that bauxite mining would remove 858 square kilometers (9,235,000,000 square feet) of agricultural land and damage more than 4,700 square kilometers of natural habitat over the next 20 years in Guinea, where the world's largest bauxite deposits are found. Meanwhile, approximately 80% of Guinea's bauxite mining region residents rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.
In the meantime, three German automobile companies - Audi, BMW, and Daimler - have encouraged its suppliers to join the Aluminum Stewardship Initiative, an industry-led certification scheme that uses third-party audits to assess mines, refineries, and smelters against human rights and environmental standards to promote responsible aluminum procurement.
In addition, a coalition of 11 car companies, including BMW, Daimler, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo, initiated a project in May of 2021 to assess the human rights risks inherent in aluminum supply chains and those of nine other raw materials to address the human rights challenge in aluminum production.
While reacting to the issue, the senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, Jim Wormington, noted "car manufacturers see aluminum as a critical material for the transition to fuel-efficient vehicles," adding that "they should use their ever-increasing purchasing power to protect the communities whose land and environments are harmed by the aluminum industry."
Aluminum is a lightweight but strong metal produced from bauxite, a red ore. Bauxite is refined into alumina, an intermediate product then smelted into aluminum. Although aluminum is highly recyclable, more than half the automobile industry's aluminum is produced primarily from bauxite.
