 Hello, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today for this second issue briefing on the day two of the Sustainable Development Impact Summit. My name is Oliver Caen, I'm head of strategic communications at the World Economic Forum. We're here to discuss one of the, one of the standard reports and research projects at the forum along with his partners has been involved in the roll-up to this meeting, the Global Battery Alliance, it's formed a few years ago initially in an attempt to eradicate and the child labour and poor labour conditions of folks involved in extracting the minerals that go into batteries, but of course has morphed into a larger project now, aimed to try to understand the role the batteries and battery technology can play in helping address the sustainable development goals in general. So issue briefings, 30 minutes shorter than your average session, there's a reason for that, we like to keep things lively, we like to keep things engaged and interactive, encourage anyone to throw up their hand up at any time, encourage disagreement, please if you have, I think this goes for you on the power of two, if you have anything to say, which you don't agree with, please do say, the time will go very, very fast, we've got a big issue to talk about here. So Global Battery Alliance, the report I was involved in the media launch of it last week, some pretty kind of high impact numbers, we believe after having done this research that emissions in the transport and power sectors can be cut by 30% by 2030, power and transport of course accounting for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. We also believe that 10 million jobs could be created, we believe that $150 billion could be added to the global economy and most importantly, 600 million people could gain access to energy to electricity for the first time. That's a lot of impact over a lot of areas and that's where I want to start. So quickly introduce my panel and we'll get cracking. Benedict Sabocca, chief executive officer of the Eurasian resources group based in Luxembourg. Mr Liushau Shi, executive deputy secretary general of China EV on my third down there. Anna next to Benedict, global vice president, corporate and government affairs of the international justice mission and my far left Riccardo Politi senior director, energy and extractives at the World Bank based in Washington DC. So let's get a few, one quick question each and then let's enter into the kind of more fun interactive side of the session. Benedict, let's start with you. So we're looking at, and this kind of summary, it kind of is a good summary of the work we do at the forum. We try to not just promote public private partnerships but get to the complexities of them. We're looking at efforts to control and eradicate child and illegal labour practices. We're looking at avoiding e-waste crises and other external nasty side effects of batteries. We're also looking at how do we actually empower this technology to bring about those cuts in emissions that we so badly need. Which of those are the hardest to achieve? Thank you. All of those are very difficult challenges and it will take a multi-stakeholder approach to try and resolve them. The challenge we've seen is if you think 100 years back when the supply chain of the current automotive and transportation electricity sector was built, it struggled with the same issues. Now as we come to this transformation of the lower carbon economy where we've got a significant shift into the electrification of the transportation sector and the electricity sectors, we have to make sure that we don't replicate some of the issues that we had when the supply chain in the carbon-based economies was built about 100 years ago. When you see the role that batteries will play in this in achieving those climate targets, I think we understand that this is very important. Batteries, because the sheer volumes of batteries there will be requirement storage solutions for electricity that will be required over the next years we set the target of 2030, the numbers are staggering. We have to make sure that the supply chain is built in a way that it's efficient, that it avoids in itself greenhouse gas emissions, because at the moment a lot of the extractive industries that produce products that go into batteries are not very clean and generate a lot of emissions. We have to make sure that there's circularity in the supply chain which at the moment does not exist to the extent that it could be. Most of the mobile phones in this room will not be recycled at this moment and a lot of you in the audience will have plenty of mobile phones lying around at home that are not being recycled and that's something we have to solve so it's not just a question of e-waste but we've produced over the last 25 years lithium ion batteries, millions of tonnes that are lying around that are not being reused and that's a big waste. Of course the other big element is at the moment the value that's generated across the energy storage and the battery supply chain is distributed very unevenly and I'll give you an example a typical mobile phone will cost about $1,000 in the store, the actual material cost of this mobile phone is $150, the battery is three, the cobalt which is extracted predominantly one of the poorest countries in the world on the DRC is only 30 cents of $1,000 of economic value generated in a mobile phone. The mobile phone would not exist without the Congo. So we have to find a way to distribute that value across that value chain much more evenly and more sustainably because people that are sitting at the beginning at the value chain are not seeing some of the benefits that we believe they should be seeing in terms of sustainable and alternative livelihood sustainable jobs and that's again where batteries when we distribute value along the value chain we have to make sure that this is done in a sustainable fashion and particularly in Africa and South America and some of the poor vulnerable regions that generate and produce the materials that we all need for our electronics product and for the electric vehicle revolution thank you. And the report says I believe scaling up production by 19 times is necessary so there are some pain points pain points what are you most worried about? Very specifically we should all be worried about the environmental impact of lithium production in the world because it's a very water intensive production we should be concerned about the environmental impact of nickel production particularly in Southeast Asia we should be very concerned about child labour in the copper belt it's a problem that's very well known and it hasn't been solved and it hasn't even been addressed so this is probably the error that personally is most at my heart is because that's something we shouldn't be we shouldn't be tolerating we shouldn't be applying 15s or 16s or 17th century labour practices in a in an industry that is responsible for the fourth industrial revolution or high tech products that we all benefit from so I think these are the three areas that we believe have to be addressed most in this part of the global battery lines we're doing a particularly surgical intervention into child labour through our cobald drop map or we're trying to address that issue it does sound like batteries could could do more harm than good um well definitely they're doing more more more good than harm the question is they're doing good to some of us and they're doing harm to others and evening out those imbalances I think is one of our responsibilities so let's move to you Anna you know this week has been a it's not been great news let's face it we're seeing global emissions going up when they should be going down likewise forced labour is and basic basic human slavery and all lots of labour relation issues are not getting any better in the world why is this and and what can you do about it and and how is how is this alliance do you think going to going to move the needle well it's true forced labour is persisting around the world over 20 million people in forced labour today but the good news is it is stoppable it only persists in locations where governments don't have the capacity or aren't enforcing the laws and so a lot of the work I think that needs to be done is around building institutional capacity to really strengthen child protection systems the same is true for child labour where there aren't sufficient systems for protection of children that's where child labour does persist the country we're focusing mainly here of course on Africa which where a lot of the extractives in case I'm I hope I'm not mistaken a lot of the minerals are extracted what what kind of ability and capability do you have to work with governments in those countries and put those partnerships in places so badly needed well we've seen we've seen tremendous progress working alongside governments and building institutional capacity international justice mission works in a number of countries around the world where we've seen a reduction in prevalence both in child labour and forced labour and so we have great hope that this alliance can also bring together the right partners to achieve similar reductions through partnership I think the great strength of the global battery lines is that it's public private and civil society coming together like you said it started on the on the issue of child labour but has become much more ambitious in its scope and the the report's recommendations on scaling up responsibly I think are going to be key in the implementation and has benedict referenced the roadmap I think we have a clear action plan moving forward to to do together are there any best practices from your work with other industries of the value chains that you think need you need to see applied we need to see applied when it comes to batteries I think so I think collaboration with the government is is always key that's always where we've seen our greatest success and making sure that there are partnerships in place that can sustain the work and strengthening civil society one of the partners that's a member of the global battery lines is a good shepherd sisters the number of the members of the global battery lines are working with and they're doing tremendous work around child protection and education and providing for for children coming out of mining so I think collaboration across all of these sectors is key mr lou your you represent EV 100 which I understand was initially named because you had around 100 organisations as part of your part of your coalition but now that has has mushrooms coming from China which is of course such a huge huge influence when it comes to battery production and electric vehicle manufacturing one of the lessons you can share on the practicalities of scaling up responsibly battery technology let's see back to the very beginning why we China wise choose the electric vehicle and China is actually last year produced 1.25 million electric vehicle more than 50% of the worldwide production and consumption also the ownership of 50% actually the strategy started 10 years ago in 2009 China has a lot of problems compared with other countries we have any problem because China imported 70% of children and we have a development problem because China has 150 cars for 1,000 people and the US has 1,000 people has 800 cars even Korea has 400 cars so as long as the economy grows the people need more cars but actually petroleum we cannot afford it in the world so we have to find a way to solve any problem develop problem the third one the China suffer having air pollution the particle matters is three times or four times compared with US or world standard last one carbon dioxide China is the number one carbon dioxide producer in the world and so all the problem accumulate together push China to find a way except no from the the way to figure out without petroleum what we can do so that's the so we call the battery technology because battery takes 40% of the cost for the cars so China has spent a lot of time or effort on battery development so until now we can see China has made a great progress we are the top three countries with technology and capacity and last year probably China produced more than 60% of the worldwide batteries and also we have more than 50% of patents worldwide we have the controlled that for the technology wide so with three countries we have to share the technology we have the capacity to stimulate in the trade so the cost will decrease year on year based 10 or 50% until year 2025 so that means at that time the Chinese made EV cars cost will lower than the you know all your burn cars also by that year and the Chinese solar power cost will lower than coal burning cost so that we we can ensure for economic side for your for your mental side we can make progress so we have the expectation by year 2030 China can produce 10 000 electric vehicle annually the ownership 80 million so that's the Chinese goal we can surely which is which is tremendous progress and and we'd like to maybe share the hear your thoughts on how that can be replicated in other parts of the world but but first what are your views on how successful China has been in ensuring that alongside such rapid transformation and growth in that sector that the correct processes have been in put in place regarding the you know the the issues we've been talking about as part of this alliance that you know the forced labour the child labour the e-waste and the end of life issues regarding a lack of recycling at the moment what are what are the efforts that are kind of being built around this this huge growth in in production yeah actually is a the building apps the capacities the reputed growth the last 34 years annually 60% growth rate but the arms actually volume is still not quite large so we can see until now all the batteries hike in second life or recycle and first we have found a major use for the retired battery for the telecommunication base station you know the China has a huge telecommunication system have 3.5 million of telecommunication base stations in the world in China you know the nationwide so that can be used because they can use all the retired batteries for that purpose also has energy storage perhaps some of the province build up the energy storage facilities for the power you know power industry so in the future we we think here we we can build up the more energy storage for the for the shifting the 12th or a peak of the electricity daily cycle that be we can save 100% totally electricity consumption nationwide that may be tremendously progress lastly it's for the material recycling the special show tender ribs by tree the nickel the cobalt can be a fully recycle and that to cost that that can create the i6 create about 10 12 billion rmb industry for china fantastic and love to get to some questions but first of all i want to bring you in so let's just let's just think about some of the numbers one more time 600 million people connected to electricity for the first time 150 billion to the global economy you work for the world bank part of your brief is electrification in africa and elsewhere are these numbers achievable i think the number are achievable they will bank join the global batteries alliance because we do believe that the deployment the acceleration the deployment of batteries in the power sector will can do that can provide more i mean clean a secure and affordable energy to more and more people what are the the problems the problems that we want to see sustainable batteries as we were saying and sustainable batteries start from the first process which is the mining to be sure that human the human per the human capital is well is well defended then it goes into landscape forestry we want forest to be kept as they are as much as possible water and all of of these finite resources that we are working with certainly then we move into processes that we want as as efficient from the energy viewpoint as possible and then little by little we get to the final product and to the recycling in order to do that i think we need the work of everybody on the private and on the public sector and we have to understand that i think there is a global consumer demand for products and services that are sustainable in this very very very broad sense so we work a lot with the gba we work with governments to make sure that that laws regulation policies are designed in a way that take into account human development the use of landscape and to make sure that batteries can be a solution which we are sure they are in terms of access of clean energy etc but they must be in a way to to have the least possible impact so for quick quick show of hands he wants to ask a question or make any comments gentlemen at the back we'll try to do two or three if we can who else is who else is going to put their hand up okay if you could grab the microphone if you could just let us know your name and where you're from police sir good afternoon i'm marshall stole with the Conrad Hilton foundation thank you for a really informative session my question is on child labour and unattended consequences so has research been done and mapping been done to look at the reduction in child labour where there might be then an increase in child sex trafficking or sex work because most of the the kids and people that are put into forced labour are doing so for a livelihood so i'm curious about those unintended consequences good question so um on behalf of the global battery lines perhaps better you can offer some insights into where we've got to in terms of progress um Anna I'm guessing um in your capacity at IGM you've got some some insights to share on um other areas that um or other other examples that you've been involved in um I can probably comment from what we learned from the report that Amnist International put out and has since been updating on the issue of child labour and in the copper belt and the numbers are quite quite significant they're estimated around 60 000 children in that area um that are involved in some kind of mining activity typically not the actual mining but then the further processing and transportation and so on washing um what what we haven't seen is that we actually haven't seen any reduction in those numbers quite the opposite when prices were high last year for those materials the economic activity in the other sectors dropped and people moved into the mining activities because you were you had the opportunity of of of a livelihood which of course means the entire family was working but in a in a in a micro in a micro um way to look at it is across our operations in in the in the DRC in particular uh we work with the Good Shepherd Sisters which is a a catholic organization that runs schools and child protection centres and alternative livelihood programs and I actually came back on Friday for from the opening of one of those child protection centres that we were proud to sponsor uh which will take 1 000 children out of mines into schools because the alternative to working in these mines has to be the school it has for children it cannot be some other kind of activity so um I'm not so so um I'm not so concerned about uh the the the sheer numbers as long as we're making small progress in certain areas and I think the next area we're going to be focusing on is another child protection centre with also Good Shepherd Sisters for another 1500 children these are the kind of small incremental steps that really make a difference but it has to be done in parallel with alternative livelihood programs for the parents so they find a way out of the mines for themselves and for the children because in general artisanal mine and it is not it's an anachronism it shouldn't happen it's dangerous um even if people try to make it more sustainable it's in the long term it cannot be the future for us for a supply chain that's supposed to create 150 billion dollars in economic value and you're nodding vigorously well I I was just going to answer the part on displacement I we don't typically see displacement when you're building the overall capacity of a government to protect children um if you're focused on a specific crime if the nature of the crime changes I can give you the example of the Philippines we were working with the government to reduce the number of miners in the sex trade um in in specific areas in the Philippines after 10 years we saw significant reductions up to 17 and percent in the number of miners available um and then the crime actually changed so that that activity disappeared um and then another type of exploitation arose online so online sexual exploitation and abuse of children live streamed and directed by people outside of that country but the government was already equipped to address the sex sex trafficking issues and now they're just they're adapting to that new need and the way that that crime is changing so I would say that if you're looking at the overall institutional capacity to address and protect children if you're building that sustainably into the into the government's capacity in long term you don't see as much displacement any more questions lady in the front room uh if there's a mic coming mom if you could just give us one more second here you go hi thank you so much this is an incredible initiative much needed so can you just tell us where you're of course uh it's Irene Irene hell I report for um Copenhagen Post and our press agency also fires for newsweek and Deutsche Welle international international broadcaster congratulations you launched one year ago I would love to learn you made big leeway child protection recycling world bank is on board couldn't be any better so you hold a key position because all the energy transition is based on recharging batteries could you let me know what you have achieved so far and what your plans are for the next couple of days years years good that's a good good question short term objectives anybody else while we've got the mic no okay so let's how do we get next step by step isn't it we've got a big goal in 2030 to achieve how do we get there what are the first steps what we have achieved what we have achieved is that if you think about batteries and don't think about batteries for the power sector until 18 months ago you were hearing about a 100 megawatt hour facility built by tesla in australia and that was more or less that but I have to say nowadays we are deploying it far quicker so the world bank for example in in south africa is building a 1440 megawatt hour batteries for power sector which is very very important you see how it is becoming bigger scale by scale and south africa is a developing country so what we are trying to do we are trying to accelerate the deployment of batteries in the in in power for the reasons we just said clean energy access and affordability we have we have established last year we announced it here at the one planet summit a batteries facility for up to three billion dollar we put one billion dollar by by the world bank itself just to do that just to accelerate the deployment and the deployment is not is not only a matter of financing and building is a matter of educating developing countries on the use of batteries is a matter of building policies where regulators and policymakers are pushing for the use of batteries so this is what we're doing and I think it's quite material and yeah that's what we think we want to continue doing accelerating as much as possible wherever we can access people that don't have electricity wherever we can reduce the use of fossil fuels we um if we look at where we started with a very few members a couple of years ago we're now over 60 members from private sector public sector and civil society we've got members joining almost on a weekly basis and the latest one was was google last week um so it's becoming a serious group of serious players in this industry we would like to increase our participation and representation from china um and that's a we're very happy that we've got such a such representation already here so we're going to work on that um we've started working groups on cobalt I mentioned the cobalt intervention we'll start next year the rope map um we'll have one particularly working on on child labour in cobalt because that's what originally was the the starting point for for the alliance but we started working groups for lithium as well we'll do the same for nickel and manganese and a few others um we've got a working group just on circularity because that's a major major responsibility we have to a major task we have to address and that's where I think our midstream partners let's say the the refiners and the battery materials makes are going to be very important because they understand a lot of of recycling because they know it from other industries whether that's catalytic converters or or the existing batteries today which are mainly lead acid we're looking at at lead acid battery and recycling of how lead acid batteries are today particularly in india which is not a very sustainable practice and we've got one whole work stream on innovation trying to work on what is going to be the future of the battery technology so all of those are are quite exciting we're also planning to introduce a battery pass for sustainability someone like a like a clean battery label that we want the end customers to see that the battery that is in their electric vehicle or in their electronic product has been produced and sourced in a sustainable way and that's one of the targets for next that we're working on to publish that we call it the passport or the battery passport which I believe will be will be implementing by our just about summer next year so next time you want to buy an electric vehicle we want you to have a a badge of sustainability on that battery and on the car to see well this is actually a product that's been produced in a way that we can be proud of I'd love to just come back on that so that very very briefly and not remaining one minute the role of the consumer how how much on board are the consumer with this with this revolution in battery technology as you said labelling is going to help but how much of the public consciousness we just have to look outside and that the the kind of the wellspring of the motion around key subjects such as climate change that is that that really are reaching tipping points you know consumers on board with the with the issues that that this alliance is seeking to address yeah refer to please yes consumers are key they are the pulling power they are the the people who demand for sustainable batteries they don't demand only service they demand the service which is done with proper ethical in a proper ethical manner so that for us are very important because they push industry they push a multilaterals they push everybody to do to do it in the right way we don't want to have to do some good on one side and some bad on the other and Mr Lou in China of course it was it was the air quality of course with that was an the initial kickstarter for China's huge kind of ramping up of of a movement towards an energy and sorry electric battery technology actually my personally feel much better compared to five years ago the air quality in Beijing is much better now it's better now sorry than it was yeah it's actually in Beijing much more blue sky and you can feel better and we actually in Beijing 300 million electric vehicles on the ground street and people like to to to to take the car even my son has a car so that we I think there is a future there's a the trend is not a reversible everybody tried to figure out what kind of use an electric car and the government has tried to figure out how to install more infrastructure for your cars allow me side to the batteries especially important we tried to figure out it's technology side to reduce the because the percentage of the cobalt and nickel which is very well in the world we tried to figure out what can increase the energy density increase the safety increase the reliability of the batteries and also set up the system to fully life recycled of the batteries and that we could could contributed to our country to the world for less coming down side it seems to me there's been a tremendous amount of progress in your lines and there in the the short time it's been existing it's growing very rapidly and there's a you have a lot to do thank you very much for joining us here today I very much expect to see you again in the sustainable developments impact summits in the years to come as you move towards your target of 2030 thank you so much for joining us thank you for joining us here in the room and for those watching live online at weforum.org this session is now over