Rechargeable batteries power our modern world, from phones and tablets to cars and computers. Most current batteries require cobalt. Most of the cobalt we use (about 70%) is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with much of it being sent to China to be processed for the global market.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a conflict zone, as factions within the DRC fight factions from nearby Rwanda. It’s been going on for decades. Within this conflict zone, it’s estimated that more than 40,000 children are being forced to work in deadly conditions.
In December, what’s called the 2025 Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity were signed between the DRC and Rwanda, with the U.S. facilitating, aiming to end the conflict. On paper, they establish a permanent ceasefire, disarm non-state forces, and promote economic integration with a focus on the critical minerals trade – but none of that has happened, yet.
Our guest is heading up a global campaign to raise awareness of the nexus between cobalt and our devices and electric vehicles.
Ambassador Tony Hall represented Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District from 1979 to 2002, and he served as US Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 2002 to 2006. And he led the Blood Diamond initiative in the 1990s, which eventually led to systems to mitigate the importation of so-called ‘blood’ or ‘conflict’ diamonds that were being mined in places similar to today’s DRC.
Ambassador Hall was in Washington, DC on Feb. 10 to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee at Hearing on Advancing Peace in DRC and Rwanda. He stopped by the studio last week to give us an update on that hearing, and legislation proposed by that subcommittee’s Chair, Republican Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, titled “Stop China’s Exploitation of Congolese Children and Adult Forced Labor through Cobalt Mining Act” which would specifically block cobalt extracted or processed with the use of child or forced labor from entering the U.S. market.
Click here to read Ambassador Hall's testimony.
Click here to listen to our conversation with him from July, 2025.
Guest:
Tony Hall, former Congressman who represented Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District from 1979 to 2002; former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 2002 to 2006; and U.S. Chair of the global Blood Battery Campaign
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