Dirty truths behind clean energy

Lithium-ion batteries drive the clean-energy revolution, but mining and processing their minerals come at a steep environmental and human cost.

The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth

By Nicolas Niarchos

Published by HarperCollins

378 pages ₹699

 

 

This book shines a harsh spotlight on an oft-ignored facet of clean energy — that it is “clean” only in the sense that it does not emit any noxious gases when it produces energy. But many dirty processes are followed before it reaches that stage.

 

Nicholas Niarchos, a journalist who reports on wars, energy and migrations, focuses only on batteries in this book — the Li-ion cells used in your mobile phones and electric vehicles (EVs) — and not on the entire spectrum of clean energy that includes solar farms, wind turbines and, of course, hydro-electricity. But the issues he examines and narrates also apply to them. Li-ion batteries need lithium, cobalt, nickel and other minerals. The mining of these minerals is hardly a clean process. And it is not just about emissions or environmental damage — the actual miners suffer long-term health damage but make very little money, while corrupt political leaders and big multinational mining companies become rich.

 

There are also geopolitical battles involved. Belgium once colonised Congo for its diamonds and other precious minerals. Now, big mining companies from the United States and China jostle to take advantage of Congo’s rich cobalt deposits. Congo’s leaders have been deposed and killed and rebels have been armed by global powers and wholesale slaughters have taken place. The life of the average Congolese citizen remains dismal.

 

Mr Niarchos is an excellent reporter but as he admits, he faced numerous roadblocks once he started his research for this book. He was ejected from Western Sahara by Moroccan authorities and detained once on one of his trips to Congo. And though he had visited China earlier as part of a broad press group, he was refused a visa when he wanted to travel specifically to cover the Chinese end of the EV supply chain.

 

Those handicaps show up in the book. Some areas — the refining of lithium, cobalt, nickel and the finished cells that China has a lock on — are not as detailed as his in-depth examination of the mines, miners, political strife, coups, and foreign interference in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr

 

Niarchos is at his best when he examines Congo’s history, and its current predicament. He also has solid reporting from Indonesia, where large quantities of nickel are mined and which has become important to the Chinese.

 

Similarly, the history of Li-ion chemistry evolution and the innovations that led to the Li-ion battery development are excellent. The old lithium phosphate batteries were prone to catching fire. But the innovation that led to a new, safer but energy dense battery would happen in Japan. You could say Japan developed the first modern Li-ion battery and Sony dominated it for a while.

 The other portions of the supply chain are not quite as well reported or examined, perhaps because of the roadblocks he faced. For example, while he looks at lithium phosphate extraction in the Western Sahara, there is no examination of the lithium mined in Chile, which holds enormous reserves of the white gold and second only to Australia in terms of lithium production currently. Chile’s lithium deposits have had a devastating effect on the ecology of the Atacama region. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) says though the lithium triangle countries — Chile, Argentina and Bolivia — signed agreements, neither the states nor the mining companies comply with their human right obligations. The ecological and sociological impact of mining in the lithium triangle nations are largely ignored in Mr Niarchos’ book.

 

Similarly, Mr Niarchos’ inability to get a visa to China shows up. While he uses his original visit and secondary sources to write about how the country came to dominate EVs, though it is neither a producer of the critical minerals (lithium, nickel or cobalt), nor the country that originally developed the Li-ion chemistry, he hasn’t been able to get into the details of how China invested in and now dominates the processing of all critical minerals for EV batteries, or even how its companies outwitted Western rivals in Congo.

 

Mr Niarchos goes into great detail when he recounts the human costs of cobalt extraction in Congo and the nation’s chequered history full of wars, coups, ethic battles and foreign interference, including the role of the US President in overthrowing governments. The grisly killing of Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the First Congolese Republic (which became the Democratic Republic of Congo) also features briefly. Lumumba’s successor, the highly corrupt and tyrannical Mobutu and his regime is discussed in detail.

 

Sometimes, it almost feels as if Mr Niarchos is writing a detailed history of Congo — with cobalt (and other minerals) as the backdrop instead of a book on the entire Li-ion battery supply chain. Also, the book could have been perhaps easier to navigate if the author had followed a more logical narrative thread — focusing on mining of all minerals, followed by its refining, and then the manufacture and use of the end product. Instead, he jumps back to Congo time and again, making it less easy to follow his line of thought.

 But these are minor quibbles.

 

Mr Niarchos has picked an area that is extremely important and too little written about. And that makes the book so important.

 

         

The reviewer, former editor of Businessworld and Business Today magazines, is author of Will India Get Rich Before It Turns 100? A Reality Check, Aleph, 2024