清洁电动车与刚果的黑暗现实

Behind every clean electric car there is cobalt. And behind cobalt is the Democratic Republic of Congo.

每一辆清洁的电动车的背后都有钴，而钴的背后有刚果民主共和国。

Cobalt is a critical element in lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars. Such batteries already consume 42 per cent of the metal and demand will soar as the world switches from petrol and diesel cars to electric ones. This week, Britain followed France in declaring a ban on such vehicles from 2040. Soon, almost anyone in the rich world will be able to drive safe in the knowledge that they’re being kinder and gentler to the planet.

钴是电动车锂离子电池的关键原料。这类电池已经占到钴金属消费总量的42%，随着世界从汽油和柴油发动机汽车转向电动车，需求还将急剧增加。最近英国效仿法国，宣布从2040年起禁止销售汽油和柴油发动机车辆。很快，富裕世界几乎所有人都能在驾车的时候自鸣得意，以为自己对地球更友善更温和了。

Did I mention the Democratic Republic of Congo? Some 60 per cent of the world’s cobalt comes from this central African country, one the size of western Europe and with gargantuan problems to match. Some industry analysts are predicting a 30-fold increase in cobalt demand by 2030, much of which will come from Congo. Cobalt prices doubled in the past year alone. You might imagine the average Congolese would be thrilled by the prospect of the coming bonanza. But if history is any guide, the average Congolese will gain little — save perhaps from militia violence and perhaps a dangerous, poorly paid job.

我提到过刚果民主共和国吧？全世界约60%的钴来自这个中非国家——它的国土面积与西欧相当，需要解决巨大的问题。业内一些分析人士预计，到2030年钴的需求将增长30倍，其中很大一部分新增供应将来自刚果。仅过去一年期间，钴的价格就翻了一倍。你也许会想象普通刚果人对于即将从天而降的财富感到振奋。但如果历史可以提供指引的话，那就是刚果人将得不到什么好处——也许除了可能发生的民兵暴力事件和危险的低薪工作。

In Congo, they say, you can find every element in the periodic table. But this abundance has not done its people much good. A recent report by Global Witness found that 30 per cent of revenue paid to state bodies by mining companies from 2013 to 2015 — about $750m — simply vanished.

有人说，你可以在刚果找到元素周期表中的每一种元素。但丰富的资源并没有给刚果人民带来太多好处。全球见证(Global Witness)最近一份报告发现，2013年至2015年期间矿业公司支付给政府机构的约7.5亿美元税费有30%不知所踪。

A separate report about Joseph Kabila, the president, whose family dominates 80 lines of business, gives a clue as to where some of it might have gone. Instead of benefiting from its vast mineral wealth, Congolese are among the poorest people on the planet, with a per-capita income of $800. It is enough to give the socially conscious Tesla driver sleepless nights.

另一份关于刚果总统约瑟夫?卡比拉(Joseph Kabila)——他的家族把持着80个业务领域——的报告，提供了关于这些钱的一部分可能流向何处的线索。刚果人没能从丰富的矿产资源中获得好处，反而是地球上最贫困的群体之一，人均收入仅800美元。这足以让具有社会意识的特斯拉(Tesla)车主难以安睡。

Does it have to be like this? Resources are hard to cope with even if you have the best institutions. This is not a description that can be applied to Congo. The country has been horribly misruled since it became the personal colony of King Leopold II of Belgium in 1885.

这种局面是刚果的历史宿命吗？资源问题是很棘手的，即使你有最好的制度也是如此。而这种描述不适合刚果。自1885年成为比利时国王利奥波德二世(Leopold II)的私人殖民地以来，这个国家一直遭受着暴政的统治。

He used the Congolese as slaves, hounding millions to death and chopping off the limbs of those deemed too tardy in stripping the country of its natural wealth — mainly rubber used for tyres in the first auto boom. In 1960, a brutalised Congo won independence. The Belgians, French and British — hoping to maintain control over copper and cobalt-rich Katanga province — unsuccessfully tried to engineer its secession.

他把刚果人当成奴隶，在掠夺该国资源——在第一场汽车繁荣中主要是用于制造轮胎的橡胶——的过程中导致数百万刚果人死亡，还砍掉那些被认为动作迟缓的劳工的四肢。1960年，满目疮痍的刚果获得独立。比利时人、法国人和英国人——他们希望继续控制铜和钴矿丰富的加丹加省(Katanga)——试图让该省独立的努力失败了。

When that failed, the west threw its weight behind Mobutu Sese Seko, a leader whose anti-Communist credentials made him an ally. In return for Mobutu’s support, western governments ignored his peccadilloes: which, sadly for the Congolese, involved plundering the country.

当独立计划失败后，西方全力支持蒙博托?塞塞?塞科(Mobutu Sese Seko)——他的反共招牌使他成为了西方的盟友。为了回报蒙博托的支持，西方政府选择忽视他的“瑕疵”：其中包括掠夺这个国家，这对于刚果人是不幸的。

After three decades, Mobutu fell. But the policy of colluding with Congo’s elite to strip ordinary citizens of their birthright has gone on unabated. The west has poured in billions in peacekeeping and aid. But foreign mining companies have extracted billions more in gold, diamonds, tin, coltan, copper and cobalt.

30年后，蒙博托倒台了。但是，勾结精英阶层一起剥夺公民与生俱来的权利的政策得到延续。西方投入数十亿美元维和并提供援助。但外国矿业公司采掘了价值更高的黄金、钻石、锡、钶钽铁矿、铜和钴。

Wittingly or unwittingly the big miners operating in Congo have helped fund this institutionalised looting. Behind their claims of corporate responsibility, world-class mines, verified supply chains and environmental care lies a different reality: poverty, violence and toxic pollution.

不管有意还是无意，在刚果经营的大型矿商为这种制度化的掠夺提供了资金。在他们所宣称的企业责任、世界级矿区、经过核实的供应链和环保意识背后，是一种不同的现实：贫穷、暴力和有毒污染。

Industrial mines operated by the likes of Glencore, the world’s biggest cobalt supplier, may have better standards than the artisanal mines that pock the landscape, where labourers, including children, often work in the most wretched conditions. With the best will in the world, it is hard to verify whether cobalt from these mines is entering a supply chain of dizzying complexity, which may involve mines in Congo, smelting in China and sale, as part of a laptop or electric car, in Los Angeles or London.

全球最大的钴供应商嘉能可(Glencore)之类的企业对其工业矿区执行的标准，可能高于作坊式矿区——后者遍布矿山，包括童工在内的劳工往往在最悲惨的条件下工作。即便抱有世界上最好的意愿，外界也很难查明来自作坊式矿区的钴是否进入了复杂得令人头晕的供应链——涉及刚果矿区的钴，在中国进行冶炼和销售，最终以笔记本电脑或电动车部件的形式来到洛杉矶和伦敦。

Companies such as Apple, HP and Samsung have joined an effort to bring more light to the supply chain. Another group has announced its intention to expand a scheme that monitors the “conflict minerals” of tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold.

苹果(Apple)、惠普(HP)和三星(Samsung)等公司已经加入了让这条供应链更加光明的行动。另外一组企业则宣布有意扩大监测锡、钨、钽和黄金等“冲突矿产”的一个机制。

Yet even verifying the supply chain is not a painless solution. When US legislation came into force in 2010, requiring companies to declare whether violent groups were profiting from minerals, many simply boycotted Congo as a supplier, throwing hundreds of thousands of artisanal miners out of work. Ensuring that ordinary Congolese people actually benefit from the riches beneath their feet is a devilishly complex business. But it should not be beyond the wit of the same clever people who invented the electric car.

不过，即使验证供应链也不是一种无痛苦的解决方案。当美国一项法律于2010年生效、要求企业声明是否有暴力集团从矿产中获利时，很多企业干脆抵制刚果矿产，使得数十万个作坊式矿工失去生计。确保刚果普通民众真正受益于他们脚下的财富，是一个极为复杂的课题。但这对那些发明了电动车的聪明人来说，应该不成问题。