After recently expanding electric car manufacturing plants to India and adding a new semi-electric truck to its range of vehicles, Tesla is one of many corporations joining a global quest for net-zero carbon emissions.
In the United States, the transportation sector is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide because it is almost wholly dependent on petroleum fuels. President Biden plans to replace the U.S. government’s fleet of cars and trucks with electric vehicles, and manufacturers like General Motors are aiming for zero-tailpipe-emission vehicles within the next couple of decades. Pressure to move away from traditional petroleum-powered engines and shift towards electric vehicles is mounting.
Kristin Dziczek, a vice president at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said that the number of purely electric vehicles built in the US will more than double from 2020 to 2024. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sales for all forms of electric vehicles rose by 5 percent while total vehicle sales dropped by 14 percent.
With a switch to vehicles powered by electric batteries comes the need for the raw materials needed to produce them. The uptick in mining of lithium, cobalt and nickel, the three main materials needed to meet the demand for electric vehicles, presents increased environmental and social problems. The costs of the electric vehicle boom might be hidden deep underground— but they will not be there for long. Consequences of electric battery production must be considered in evaluating how electric vehicles will contribute to a more environmentally sustainable and just future for the transportation sector.
Lithium Mining in Bolivia
In order to meet production needs of lithium-ion batteries used in most electric vehicles, global demand for lithium is expected to double from 2020 to 2024. South America is home to the “lithium triangle” within Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, holding the largest reserve of lithium metal in the world. Bolivia boasts over 25 percent of the global supply lying beneath its expansive salt flats.
Lithium is extracted by drilling a hole into the salt flats and using a mineral-rich salty brine to pump the metal to the surface, where it is evaporated, filtered and extracted. This extraction process can use 500,000 gallons of water per ton of lithium. It has already been linked to the drying of the Rio Grande delta, causing water level instability above and below ground.
In this dry region, loss of the Rio Grande Delta does not only threaten freshwater fish. Local farmers rely on it to grow crops and sustain livestock. Water now needs to be shipped in from other areas to meet agricultural demands.
Nickel Mining in Indonesia
Nickel is used to increase energy storage and energy delivery in batteries at a low cost. Indonesia relies on smelting for battery nickel, and is the world’s top producer. The country plans to add 30 new nickel smelters before 2022 to meet battery demands. Nickel mining comes with incredible clean-up needs and environmental concerns. Smelting nickel produces acidic waste laced with heavy metals.
To cut costs and reduce effort needed to dispose of nickel mining waste, Indonesian mines have requested to dump tailings into the sea. Some research proposes that the deep-sea disposal would cause waste to sink and rest at the ocean floor. However, it is likely that upwelling, the rising of deep, cool water, could present a risk to ecosystems in the upper layers of the ocean and to coastal communities who depend on fishing resources. Indonesia is also within the irreplaceable marine biodiversity hotspot known as the Coral Triangle, making threats to marine life even more pressing.
Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Cobalt is a byproduct of the production of other metals and an additional material in lithium-ion batteries. Nearly 50 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa, which also accounts for two-thirds of the global production of the mineral. UNICEF has identified that about 20 percent of cobalt sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo comes from mines where 40,000 children work. Young child laborers are exploited in extremely dangerous conditions, working long shifts and inhaling toxic cobalt dust.
Because of well known and documented unethical labor practices in the mining of cobalt, electric vehicle manufacturers are beginning to move away from using cobalt. Tesla, for example, has announced its intent to make its batteries cobalt-free in future models.
How Can We Make Electric Cars Truly “Clean”?
With the goal of reaching a complete renewable energy scenario, electric vehicle and renewable energy technology demands could totally deplete lithium, cobalt, and nickel reserves. Development of new mines is deemed necessary to keep up with production goals for electric vehicle batteries, which will exacerbate environmental and social mining issues.
As finite materials, the production loop for batteries needs to be closed in order to reduce reliance on mines and the need for new materials. Recycling batteries is complex, but increased demand could prompt new strategies to isolate raw materials for effective reuse. Governments and technology companies can invest in these strategies so valuable metals and minerals are effectively recovered, putting less pressure on mining.
Since the costs of destructive mining are known, the electric vehicle industry can make robust, comprehensive commitments to sourcing responsible battery materials. This could, for example, make the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s child mining practices and Indonesia’s proposed waste dumping schemes less favorable in the market
While it might be more profitable to respond to an increased demand for electric vehicle batteries by ramping up socially and environmentally irresponsible mining practices, costs will be incurred elsewhere. Growth must be checked and evaluated to avoid cyclical damage and aid responses. We need to reduce environmental impact in every phase of a product’s life cycle, making sure we look at costs holistically.
