Does the expansion of electric vehicles represent a further extension of the extractive frontier? Are there sufficient resources to electrify all global transport? How can public administration contribute to reducing the risks of rights violations in the supply chain?
Everywhere, electric vehicles have boomed as a transport decarbonisation measure. However, a large part of the raw materials needed in its manufacture, especially for batteries, cause serious socio-environmental impacts in the areas of extraction, in most cases in countries of the global South.
Medicus Mundi Mediterrània publishes the report “Critical minerals in conflict and alternatives for global justice in public procurement: the case of electric vehicles“, written by Raúl Velasco-Fernández, researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) and Alfons Pérez López, energy and climate researcher at ODG. The publication analyses the potential problems of the expansion of electric vehicles and proposes ways to minimise them from public administrations.