政客不願談論的電動車電池的環境成本

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

The environmental costs of EV batteries that politicians don't tend to talk about

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News - Colin Butler

Sat, December 30, 2023 at 1:00 a.m. PST

Along with the massive recent manufacturing investments in electric vehicle (EV) technology and talks of a greener, decarbonized future, there are some not-so-green problems.

In its latest New Energy Finance report, Bloomberg News predicts there will be some 730 million EVs on the road by 2040. The year before, Bloomberg predicted half of all U.S. vehicle sales would be battery electric by 2030.

In Canada, too, there's talk of a big economic boost with the transition to EVs — including 250,000 jobs and $48 billion a year added to the nation's economy through the creation of a domestic supply chain.

Governments have already invested tens of billions into two EV battery manufacturing plants in southwestern Ontario. However, they come with the environmental dilemma of what to do with the millions of EV batteries when they reach the end of their life.

Dead battery dilemma

"The rules are non-existent," said Mark Winfield, a professor at York University in Toronto and co-chair of the school's Sustainable Energy Initiative. "There is nothing as we talk to agencies on both sides of the border, the federal, provincial, state levels.

"In the case of Ontario, the answer was actually that we we have no intention of doing anything about this."

When asked for its response, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks did not return a request for comment from CBC News.

Winfield said the fact there is no public policy on the disposal of EV batteries is concerning because a number of the chemicals and components used to make EV batteries, such as cadmium, arsenic and nickel are listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) and simply can't be thrown into a landfill.

"You would think given the nature of of these products and also the scale of the potential looming problem, as you know, when the EV sales move into the tens of millions and every one of those ultimately is going to result in an end-of-life battery. One would have expected regulators to be a little bit of further ahead of the curve."

Critical minerals come with costs

The environmental costs of a greener future in transportation don't stop at dead batteries. If the country carries through on its plan to build a home-grown supply chain for the critical minerals needed to make EV batteries, it could mean the development of a vast tract of unspoiled nature in Ontario's north.

To get the critical minerals necessary to build EV batteries, Canada will have to develop the Ring of Fire, a deposit of minerals discovered in Ontario's far north in 2007.

According to provincial data from 2023, more than 31,000 registered mining claims have been made in the region. Ontario's minister of mines spokesperson Dylan Moore said in December that Ontario is planning to unlock critical minerals in the Ring of Fire, but any new mine would be subject to provincial environmental standards.

             Mining claims jump in northern Ontario's Ring of Fire as EV battery interest grows

"There happens to be tremendous interest in the critical mineral potential in the Ring of Fire region to fuel the electric vehicle revolution," Moore told CBC News.

The region happens to be in the middle of an environmentally significant area called the Hudson's Bay Lowlands.

"We're talking about a huge wetland," said Dayna Scott, a professor with the Osgoode Law School at York University and the school's research chair in environmental law and justice in the green economy.

"The largest intact boreal forest remaining in the world and also a massive carbon storehouse."

In the Hudson's Bay Lowlands, there are an estimated 35 billion tonnes of carbon, acts as a major stopover for billions of migratory birds and is home to wolverines, caribou and lake sturgeon — all considered endangered, or species at risk by the federal government.

For years, Scott has studied the social, environmental and legal implications of bringing development to the Hudson's Bay Lowlands and its effect on the rights and interests of remote Indigenous communities there.

Inside the battle over Ontario's Ring of Fire

"They hold the inherent jurisdiction to be the decision-makers for those lands. They also hold a right of free, prior and informed consent, which comes from international law. That means [governments] need to get the consent of all of the communities that are going to be impacted by this major irreversible change to their way of life."

The Indigenous communities fall under the James Bay Treaty, or Treaty 9 and while some favour development, others are opposed.

To curry their favour, those for and against development are both using climate and the environment to justify their cause, Scott said.

She said those who want to mine critical minerals in the area argue that would lead to a reduction in emissions and save the planet, while those who want to leave the area untouched argue destroying one of the world's largest carbon sinks by developing it would only undo all those emission reductions from EV batteries.

While it's impossible to tell who's right, Scott said governments need buy-in from every First Nation in the Treaty 9 area or any development would be open to litigation — some rarely mentioned at news conferences or funding announcements about the upcoming switch to Canadian-made EV batteries.

"A lot of people who are interested in buying an electric vehicle don't want to see themselves as caught up in an ongoing process of Indigenous dispossession," Scott said. "If people did have to confront at what cost we are going to get these minerals, do we want to do it over Indigenous People's objections?

"I think that would give a lot of people in southern Ontario pause, probably."

Translation

隨著近期製造業對電動車 (EV) 技術的大規模投資以及對綠色、脫碳未來的討論，也發現一些不太綠色的問題。

彭博新聞社在其最新的《新能源財經》報告中預測，到2040 年，路上行駛的電動車數量將達到約7.3 億輛。前一年，彭博社預測，到2030 年，美國汽車銷量的一半將是電動車。

在加拿大，也有傳言稱，向電動車轉型將帶來巨大的經濟提振 - 包括透過創建國內供應鏈，創造 25 萬個就業崗位，並為國家經濟每年增加 480 億美元。

政府已向安大略省西南部的兩家電動車電池製造廠投資數百億美元。 然而，他們面臨著環境困境，即當數以百萬計的電動車電池達到壽命終點時如何處理它們。

電池沒電的困境

多倫多約克大學教授、亦是該校可持續能源倡議的聯合主席 Mark Winfield 表示：「規則根本不存在」; 「當我們與邊境兩側的聯邦、省、州各級的機構交談時，沒有任何結果」。

“就安大略省而言，答案實際上是我們無意對此採取任何行動。”

當被要求回應時，安大略省環境、保護和公園部沒有回應 CBC 新聞的置評請求。

Winfield 表示，事實上沒有關於電動車電池處置的公共政策這一事實令人擔憂，因為根據加拿大環境保護法（CEPA），用於製造電動車電池的許多化學物質和成分，例如鎘、砷和鎳，被列為有毒物質, 並且根本不能扔進垃圾掩埋場。

“你可能會認為，考慮到這些產品的性質, 以及潛在迫在的眉睫的問題的規模之時，正如你所知，當電動車銷量達到數千萬輛時，每一輛最終都將有到達電池壽命的終結。人們會期望監管機構能夠稍微預計困難的事情。”

關鍵礦物是有成本的

綠色交通未來的環境成本不僅限於電池寿命耗盡。 如果該國實施為製造電動車電池所需的關鍵礦物建立本土供應鏈的計劃，這可能意味著去開發安大略省北部大片未受破壞的自然環境。

為了獲得製造電動車電池所需的關鍵礦物，加拿大必須開發 “火環” ，這是 2007 年在安大略省最北部發現的礦藏。

根據 2023 年的省級數據，該地區已登記採礦權超過 31,000 份。 安大略省礦業部長發言人Dylan Moore 去年12月表示，安大略省正計劃開採火環地區的關鍵礦產，但任何新礦都將遵守省級環境標準。

     隨著電動車電池興趣的增長，安大略省北部火環地區的採礦索賠激增

Moore 告訴加拿大廣播公司新聞： “人們對火環地區的關鍵礦產潛力懷有極大的興趣，以推動電動車革命。”

該地區恰好位於 Hudson's Bay 低地的一個環境重要區域的中部。

約克大學 Osgoode 法學院教授兼該校環境法和綠色經濟正義研究主席 Dayna Scott 說:「我們談論的是一片巨大的濕地」。

 “世界上現存最大的完整北方森林，也是一個巨大的碳庫。”

Hudson's Bay低地估計有350 億噸碳，是數十億隻候鳥的主要中途停留地，也是狼獾、馴鹿和湖鱘的家園 - 所有這些都被聯邦政府視為瀕臨滅絕或處於危險中的物種。

多年來，Scott一直研究開發 Hudson's Bay 低地做成對社區、環境和法律的影響，以及對當地偏遠原住民社區權益的影響。

安大略火環之戰的內幕

“原住民擁有成為這些土地決策者的固有管轄權。他們還擁有來自國際法規定的自由、事先知情的同意權。這意味著[政府]需要獲得所有社區同意他們的生活方式將受到這一不可逆轉的重大變化的影響。”

原住民社區屬於《James Bay條約》, 即第 9 號條約的管轄範圍，有些人支持開發，有些人則反對。

Scott說，為了討好他們，支持和反對發展的人們正在利用氣候和環境來證明他們的事業是正當的。

她說，那些想要在該地區開採關鍵礦物的人認為，這將減少排放並拯救地球，而那些想要讓該地區保持原狀的人則認為，透過開發來破壞世界上最大的碳匯之一, 它只會抵消電動車電池的所有碳減排。

雖然無法判斷誰是對的，但Scott 表示，各國政府需要得到第9 號條約區域內每個原住民社區的支持，否則任何開發都將面臨訴訟 —— 這些內幕在新聞發布會, 或在關於電動車電池即將轉向加拿大製造的資助公告中很少提及。

Scott說：「許多有興趣購買電動車的人不希望看到自己陷入持續的原住民剝奪過程中」; 「如果人們確實必須面對我們要付出什麼代價才能獲得這些礦物，我們是否願意不顧及原住民的反對而這樣做？

“或許, 我認為這可能會讓安大略省南部的許多人停下來。”

              So, how to deal with the millions of EV batteries when they reach the end of their life is an environmental dilemma, similar to the challenge in dealing with old solar panels. When come to battery making, if Canada carries through on its plan to build a home-grown supply chain for the critical minerals needed to make EV batteries, it could mean the development of a vast tract of unspoiled nature in Ontario's north. It is interesting to see that those who want to mine critical minerals in the area argue that the development would lead to a reduction in emissions and save the planet, while those who want to leave the area untouched argue that destroying one of the world's largest carbon sinks by developing it would only undo all those emission reductions from EV batteries.

Note:

A boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. Boreal forest soil tends to be young and poor in nutrients, lacking the deep, organically enriched profile present in temperate deciduous forests. The colder climate hinders development of soil, and the ease with which plants can use its nutrients. (Wikipedia)