Congolese miners are paying the price for the green transition

The green energy transition is one of our last hopes of keeping our home planet from crumbling – or at least keeping global heating below 1.5 degrees.

Road transport – cars, buses and trucks – contribute about 15 percent of global carbon emissions. That means electric vehicles (EVs) can play a crucial role in decarbonizing the transport sector.

However, this particular transition faces a catch-22: EVs depend heavily on lithium-ion batteries, and one of their key components – cobalt – is far from clean and ethical in how it’s sourced.

And nowhere is that more apparent than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country rich in mineral wealth but plagued by environmental degradation, poverty, armed conflict and human rights abuses.

While the DRC is home to some of the richest mineral deposits in the world, supplying around 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, its people have remained deeply impoverished.

Most of this mining takes place in the Copperbelt, a large region covering much of the southern DRC and extending into northern Zambia.

In this region, entire communities are often exposed to dangerous working conditions, toxic pollution and violence. Some areas are under the control of armed groups, leaving locals without the basic right to live and work safely. 

This has led to DRC being described as a green sacrifice zone – a place exploited in the name of sustainability.

The world needs cobalt to decarbonize, but the very process of extracting it is undermining the ethical and environmental goals of the green transition. 

The question, then, is not just how we reduce emissions, but who pays the price for it.

A brief history of mining in the DRC 

In terms of mineral resources, there are few countries in the world richer than the DRC. Its cobalt, diamond, copper, gold and other ores are worth an estimated USD 24 trillion, according to the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). 

But this immense wealth rarely reaches most Congolese people, the vast majority of whom live on less than USD 1.90 a day.

Many Congolese make a living off artisanal and small-scale mining – often informal and unregulated. According to the World Bank, this sector employs between 500,000 and 2 million people, contributing around 90 percent of the country’s total mining output. Many are forced to work under unsafe and illegal conditions.

So, how did the DRC get here?

Like in many countries in the Global South, the answer has a lot to do with colonization, followed by political instability and weak governance.

At the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, European powers agreed to divide Africa between them. Most of the Congo Basin ended up in the hands of Belgian King Leopold II, who established the Congo Free State as his personal property.

Rubber and copper were highly sought-after minerals then, and King Leopold forced Congolese people to work in the mines, exploiting them for his own wealth. This continued after the country officially became a Belgian colony, known as the Belgian Congo, in 1908.

Local people were taxed simply for the privilege of living in Lubumbashi (then known as Elisabethville), the DRC’s second-most populous city today and the largest in the Copperbelt. This forced them to work for the government or in the mines just to survive.

The DRC became independent in 1960 and elected its first prime minister: African nationalist Patrice Lumumba. The young country almost immediately faced a separatist movement in Katanga Province in the heart of the Copperbelt – supported by Belgium, who wanted to protect their mining interests in the region.

After just three months in charge, Lumumba was dismissed, arrested and eventually assassinated in January 1961, all with the alleged involvement of Belgium and the U.S. due to Cold War fears over his suspected ties with the Soviet Union.

Lumumba’s demise allowed a new leader to rise to power: Mobutu Sese Seko, who renamed the country Zaïre, ruled with an iron fist for 32 years and became one of Africa’s most corrupt dictators.

Under Mobutu, the mining industry was nationalized and suffered as the country’s economy gradually collapsed, further hampered by the loss of a crucial railway in neighboring Angola, which had been its main transport route to ports on the Atlantic coast.

Today, despite its natural wealth, the DRC is the world’s ninth-poorest country in terms of per capita GDP. Nearly three-quarters of its population lives under the international poverty line of USD 2.15 per day.

Meanwhile, more than 7 million Congolese are internally displaced, mainly due to armed conflict, accounting for almost 10 percent of all displaced people in the world.

The Congolese cobalt conundrum

The recent rise of EVs has opened an opportunity for the DRC to expand its production of cobalt.

But amid low pay, hazardous working conditions and widespread child labor and trafficking, Congolese cobalt mining has been likened to modern-day slavery. It’s also causing widespread pollution, which is taking a heavy physical toll on workers and local residents alike.

“People living in areas impacted by mining complain of various health problems,” says Célestin Banza Lubaba Nkulu, a senior professor of public health at the University of Lubumbashi, who has studied the toxic harm caused by cobalt mining in the DRC, particularly in Kolwezi.

Nkulu says exposure to harmful substances poses a serious threat in affected communities, contaminating both residential areas and nearby rivers.

“Some companies have set up their mineral processing plants or sulfuric acid production facilities – required for the hydrometallurgical process – within or very close to residential areas,” he explains.

“The fumes generated by these mineral extraction processes spread through the surrounding communities, causing illnesses and disturbances.”

Nkulu was involved in a 2020 study in Lubumbashi that found a strong link between cobalt mining and birth defects, highlighting the impact of mining-related pollution on newborns in the region. 

This is on top of the children already employed as child labor in the mines, where they’re exposed to toxic chemicals and “die a lot.”

“Local officials are often concerned about the health situation of affected communities,” Nkulu says. “However, their demands are often stifled by the power of corporations, which have every means at their disposal to silence them.”

Global demand for cobalt is expected to grow faster than supply – putting pressure on artisanal miners to keep up with the demand despite the health and environmental risks.

Is the DRC a green sacrifice zone?

Much of the artisanal and small-scale mining in the DRC is carried out informally, with no paperwork, regulation or proper government oversight.

This ‘free-for-all’ endangers Congolese miners and landscapes alike.

“As mining is an extractive activity with a significant impact on the environment, the issue that arises is probably doubled,” says Nikolas Galli, a postdoctoral researcher at Politecnico di Milano who has studied diamond mining in the DRC.

Galli believes the lack of regulation leads to further environmental degradation as no one is held accountable for the resources they use and the damage it causes.

“This ties into what environmental economists call the ‘tragedy of the commons’ – resources belong to everyone, but once someone uses a part of it, that part isn’t available to anyone else.”

Nkulu adds that mining has impacted river ecosystems near mining sites, polluting drinking water and causing fish to disappear.

“People who once relied on fishing and/or the trade of fish products for their livelihoods are now plunged into indescribable poverty,” he says.

Such is the cost of the green transition in the DRC: while EVs support decarbonization in the Global North, cobalt mining brings poverty and pollution to Congolese communities. 

Perhaps what’s needed for a just green transition is to rethink the world’s dependence on vehicles altogether.

“It’s super important to find sustainable ways to source these materials without ‘recolonizing’ or controlling the places where they’re extracted,” Galli says.

Blood diamonds

Unregulated mining doesn’t just contribute to human rights abuses and environmental destruction in the DRC. It’s also fueling violent conflict over the country’s natural resources.

Since 2012, an armed rebel group known as M23 has been leading an insurgency in the eastern DRC under the pretext of protecting the Tutsi ethnic group and seeking integration into the national army.

Earlier this year, the group went on a major offensive, capturing key trading cities like Goma and Bukavu in North and South Kivu provinces, which are major centers for gold and coltan mining.

However, its so-called defensive war appears to mask efforts to expand territorial control and seize valuable resources – with Rwanda suspected of backing M23’s operations as it seeks to become a regional hub for mineral exports.

While it’s difficult to say whether resources cause conflict or vice versa, Galli believes the two are clearly interlinked. He says natural resources such as diamonds, which are also widely mined in the DRC, have long been used to finance armed conflicts.

“Diamonds are unfortunately a prime resource for funding armed groups,” he explains. “They’re small, highly valuable, easy to smuggle across borders, and can generate a lot of money from just a small piece.”

“Even if people aren’t fighting directly over diamonds, these resources end up fueling conflicts in a very practical way.”

As the DRC seeks to resolve the conflicts along its borders, it’s negotiating a minerals deal with the United States, following the recent example of Ukraine. The country hopes to gain U.S. support in curbing Rwanda’s exploitation of Congolese minerals while also diversifying its partnerships, since most mining companies operating in the DRC are currently Chinese-owned.

However, many experts have warned that such a deal could encourage even more Congolese children to work in the mines – not to mention handing more of the country’s mineral wealth to foreign interests.

Is a truly green transition possible?

Despite its many issues in the DRC, the artisanal and small-scale mining sector can still play a role in peacebuilding.

For instance, certification schemes can be implemented to help ensure that minerals mined in conflict-affected areas stay out of global supply chains.

Galli believes everyone can benefit from setting formal rules in place for artisanal miners. 

“If the formal structure actually works, then you get better environmental and labor standards – so nature and workers’ rights are better respected,” he explains

Furthermore, he says that many artisanal miners are also farmers, and agriculture can also play a role in improving livelihoods in mining areas, as well as deepening people’s connection to their land.

“This makes communities more aware of the ecological value of their lands and more protective of them, so you can gain community support to make extractive activities like mining more sustainable.”

But this depends on how well these rules are implemented, because if they don’t, they could end up exacerbating inequalities instead of reducing them.

So, can the DRC truly escape this green paradox?

There’s no easy answer – but what is for certain is that artisanal mining will remain an important source of livelihoods in the country for many years to come. 

That means stakeholders should continue to work together to improve working conditions and minimize harm to workers, ecosystems and communities.

“If you want to help, you need to offer capacity that’s currently missing in the places where mining happens,” says Galli.

“This means having real conversations, listening and creating awareness for both local policymakers and the communities directly involved in mining.”