Environmental degradation
April 30, 2021
There is the Cerrejon thermal coal mine in Colombia jointly owned by Glencore and two other transnational companies, BHP and Anglo American whose expansion over the past 40 years is alleged to have caused environmental degradation and health problems for the local community.
Glencore has also been blamed for contaminating the area around Peru s Cerro de Pasco mine, run by a local company, Volcan, in which the mining giant has a majority stake. The dangerously high levels of lead, arsenic, aluminium and manganese found in local water caused the Peruvian government to declare a health emergency in 2018 after several children fell ill with lead poisoning. In Glencore s Porco mine in Bolivia, there are allegations of child labour and other abuses.
Jane Humphries
In a White House press conference held on 16 November 2016, then President Barack Obama said: “Yes to trade, but trade that ensure that these other countries that trade with us aren’t engaging in child labour”. In 2016, child labour affected more than 150 million children, or about 10% of the world’s children. In Africa, the share reaches 20%. The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 8.7 recognises child labour as a serious impediment to sustainable development and aims at eliminating child labour by 2025. Unfortunately, progress has been very slow. Since 2012, there has been a 10% decline in the incidence of child labour, which according to the International Labour Organization (ILO 2017) is not enough if the target is to be reached by 2025. We need a better understanding of what can help reach that target.