LowEmissionAsphalt-136pg-WhitePaper-May2023

P a g e | 79 Figure 48 – Highway Charge Station Energy Requirement Projections 163 Source: www.CALSTART.com Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery production causes severe water, soil, and air pollution. So, there are troubling ecological, environmental (Figure 49) , as well as economic (Figure 50) , and human rights abuses 164165166 emerging related to lithium and cobalt mining etcetera as they expand at breakneck pace to meet rising EV demand. 167 Lithium is a key mineral component for EV battery packs. Currently, most lithium is extracted from hard rock mines and to a lesser extent underground brine reserves, and much of the energy used to extract and process it comes from CO 2 -emitting fossil fuels. In hard rock mining, every ton of lithium extracted produces 15 tons of CO 2 . 168 So, much like the electricity source conundrum we must overcome, much 163 National Grid, CALSTART et al. 164 S&P Global Market Intelligence, Cobalt miners seeking to expand in Congo face human rights accusations , February 2022, www.spglobal.com . 165 Council on Foreign Relations, Why Cobalt Mining in the DRC Needs Urgent Attention , October 2019. 166 Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Tracking human rights violations & environmental impacts in lithium batteries supply chains in China, DRC & So. America , January 2017. 167 Murry J: Is the Nobel Prize-winning lithium-ion battery really having a positive impact on the environment? NS Energy , October 2019. 168 Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT Climate Portal, July 2022.