That we need to phase out the use of fossil fuels and think about alternative means of transportation is obvious. However, the current push towards electromobility, with its focus on private vehicles, is heading in the entirely wrong direction. It does nothing to solve the climate crisis in a just and equitable way. While the use of electric vehicles is largely emission-free, their production causes significant damage, particularly in the countries where the minerals for their batteries are mined. Their production damages the environment and violates the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples in the mining areas and along the supply chain. In addition, Europe, the United States and China are exerting increasing pressure to secure critical raw materials for themselves, which makes the situation even worse.
The approach of the West and China to the energy and mobility transition also exacerbates global inequalities. In 2021, 94 percent of all electric vehicles were sold in China, Europe and the United States. These regions will continue to dominate more than three-quarters of this market in 2030. In 2021, they also accounted for nearly 90 percent of battery production capacity. This share is forecast to rise to 95 percent by 2031. Manufacturing is one of the most lucrative parts of the lithium-ion battery value chain, with projected sales of $121 billion by 2030. The lion’s share of this is generated by just a handful of companies that dominate the market. Benchmark Minerals expects the top nine companies to control 52 percent of production capacity by 2031. By contrast, other regions, mostly in the Global South, bear the brunt of the negative impacts.
Wealthy nations continue to procure minerals and metals within a neo-colonial economic framework in which resource-rich countries remain mere suppliers of raw materials to meet demand and guarantee the unsustainable lifestyles in the Global North. Many of these countries lack access to the technologies needed to extract their own natural resources. Neither do they have the necessary infrastructure and financial resources to manage their own mobility transition.
Alarming concentration of power in a small number of companies
Government support for manufacturers of electric vehicles and batteries further exacerbates inequality. In their relentless race for critical raw materials and economic dominance in the mobility transition, China and the West support their multinational corporations with taxpayer money in the form of subsidies and tax breaks. Germany, for instance, is pouring public money into Northvolt, a company that develops lithium-ion batteries for electric cars and energy storage. This kind of policy strengthens the dominance of large Western and Chinese companies and leads to an alarming concentration of power among a small number of companies, which convert public money into private profits and, at the same time, let the local communities, the workforce and the environment deal with the negative impacts of the extraction and production of raw materials.
The fact that the global number of vehicles (including gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles along with electric ones) is expected to continue to grow – from 1.6 billion in 2022 to 1.7 billion in 2030 – is a further concern. Given this continuing increase, it is very unlikely that the transportation sector will reduce its emissions in line with the 1.5- or even the 2-degree threshold.
Promoting public transportation and active mobility options
We have failed to take action against unsustainable energy and raw material consumption so far – and this is the core of the climate crisis. Astonishingly, the transition to clean energy and sustainable mobility is now characterized by exactly the same unsustainable production and consumption patterns.
The expansion of clean and efficient public transportation would be central to a just mobility transition. It would also be necessary to ensure that there are fewer and smaller private cars on the roads. The International Transport Forum (ITF), an intergovernmental organization with 64 member countries, warns against relying too heavily on electric vehicles as a solution to decarbonize the transportation sector and stresses the urgent need to reduce the dependency on private cars.
According to the ITF, urban transportation emissions (which account for 40 percent of total passenger transportation emissions) can be reduced by 80 percent by 2050 through a package of measures that would reduce private and promote public transportation. These measures would reduce the dominance of private cars in urban areas in favor of public transportation and active mobility options such as using buses and bicycles and walking. It would entail ensuring that motorists pay the actual costs for parking and driving and introducing shared mobility services such as car sharing and carpooling. In its summary for political decision-makers, the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also emphasizes the importance of cities promoting public transportation and active mobility options.
More ambitious promotion of the circular economy
The EU is making progress towards a circular economy with the Batteries Regulation and other frameworks for reducing raw material consumption, but these measures are still too limited and not far-reaching enough. Environmental organizations are pushing for more ambitious targets to significantly reduce raw material consumption. While fewer and smaller electric vehicles and significant advances in the recycling and reuse of materials could substantially reduce the demand for minerals, they will continue to be needed worldwide to some extent. Carefully considered and effective laws protecting human rights and on corporate environmental due diligence are crucial to ensure that the damage caused by the extractive sector in the past is not repeated. Such laws will have to be binding, hold companies accountable and at the same time provide adequate remedies to injured parties. Only in this manner can a juster transition to more climate-neutral mobility be achieved.
A move away from the incentives that are driving the electric car boom
The international community must develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce the global wealth gap, if all countries are to benefit from clean and sustainable transport. While the problem goes far beyond electric cars, if this market continues to develop as it has to date – with only a few countries and multinational corporations dominating resource consumption and driving demand ever higher – the reduction of global inequalities to which all countries have committed under the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will remain an unattainable dream. A paradigm shift away from ever-growing individual car use will require a whole new economic model and a move away from the incentives for companies that are driving the electric car boom.
Neither the West nor China should tolerate exploitation and disregard for human rights in the countries where the raw materials required for their mobility transition are extracted. Instead, they should focus on making do with significantly fewer and smaller private vehicles in future. The mobility transition offers the opportunity for a new economic model that does not repeat the mistakes of fossil fuel era and does not harm local communities and the environment. It offers an opportunity to work towards a regenerative economy and leave behind an extractivist one based on mining, exploitation and concentration of power.
Alejandro Gonzalez is a researcher and activist in the climate justice team of The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO). He focuses on raw materials, supply chains, the energy transition and corporate responsibility and has extensive experience researching supply chains across multiple industries, such as mining, batteries, automotive, consumer electronics and renewable technologies.