In Episode III, the Battery + Storage Podcast team interviews Mathy Stanislaus, Interim Director of the Global Battery Alliance (“GBA”). In this episode, Mathy discusses the incredibly important role GBA and the World Resource Institute play in the battery storage space. He shares how batteries are a vehicle to jump-start economies and keep them moving in a sustainable way. This will be essential, as battery consumption projections are expected to increase “13-fold” by 2030. Battery storage, Mathy said, is at an inflection point and will serve as one of the major drivers toward mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement (click here to view the full report).

However, this increased demand and reliance on battery storage has resulted in a wealth of human rights concerns. Mathy presents the example of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where child labor is exploited in artisanal mining of cobalt, a critical element used in the production of lithium-ion batteries. In response, Mathy discusses the complex challenges of addressing such human rights concerns, given the critical role batteries will play in the worldwide energy future. He posits that it is the responsibility of the entire value chain to fix this problem and shares that GBA is rolling-out a roadmap for a sustainable battery value chain.

Mathy concludes by sharing his thoughts on how proactive policy approaches are needed to respond to the growing battery demand and the importance of having more pro-competitive conversations solving both the opportunities and problems of the future.

Be on the lookout for another episode with Mathy in the coming weeks as we continue the conversation.