Bad Idea #54 "Shut down the cobalt mines" with Nicholas Niarchos

In this episode of Saving the World from Bad Ideas, Mark Lynas speaks with journalist and author Nicholas Niarchos about the dirty, dangerous, and politically fraught supply chains behind lithium-ion batteries. Using cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a central case study, they explore how a technology essential to electrification and decarbonisation became tied to child labour, unsafe artisanal mines, corruption, colonial legacies, and weak global accountability. The conversation pushes back against a simplistic response, namely shutting down cobalt mining altogether. Niarchos argues that cobalt is a highly effective battery material and that the real problem is not the mineral itself, but the governance failures and moral outsourcing that allow abuse to persist across global supply chains.

🧠 Topics Discussed

🔋 Why lithium-ion batteries became central to the clean energy transition

⚙️ Which minerals go into modern batteries, including cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, graphite, and phosphates

🏭 How Exxon helped pioneer lithium-ion battery research before abandoning it

🚗 Why lithium-ion batteries made modern electric vehicles viable

⛏️ Why cobalt from the DRC became so important to battery chemistry

👷 The realities of artisanal mining, including child labour, mine collapses, and extreme precarity

📱 How major brands such as Apple are tied to these supply chains, even when they claim high standards

⚖️ Why industrial mines and artisanal mines differ, but both still raise serious questions

♻️ Why recycling alone does not solve the underlying justice problem

🧪 Whether sodium-ion and other new battery chemistries will reduce dependence on cobalt

🌍 Why the goal should be fixing the supply chain, not abandoning battery technology or Congo itself

👩‍🏫 Guest Bio

Nicholas Niarchos is a journalist and author whose work focuses on conflict, extraction, inequality, and global supply chains. In this conversation he discusses his book on the hidden human and political costs behind lithium-ion batteries and the minerals that power the energy transition, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

📚 Recommended Reading & Resources

• The Elements of Power by Nicholas Niarchos
• Reporting on cobalt mining and battery supply chains in the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Research on artisanal and industrial cobalt mining
• Work on battery chemistry, electrification, and critical minerals
• Analysis of colonial extraction, governance, and resource politics in Central Africa

💬 Quote Highlights

• 💬 “The bad idea is the battery supply chain itself, which arose from a series of decisions that didn’t seem to be taken particularly consciously, but seem to be driven by avarice, essentially.” - Nicholas Niarchos

• 💬 “I have been to mines that sit directly in Apple’s supply chain and watched as people without shoes go into these mines.” - Nicholas Niarchos

• 💬 “The iPhone is the great success story for Apple. Don’t forget it. This success was built on the backs of these kinds of labor conditions. - Nicholas Niarchos

• 💬 “If we start recycling all our material, which we’re admittedly a very, very long way off from, what gets left in Congo? - Nicholas Niarchos

• 💬 “There’s no need to go to sodium. There’s no need to try and figure out new technologies... because we have the technology. The technology is the lithium ion battery.” - Nicholas Niarchos

• 💬 “The bad idea is the supply chain, not the use of cobalt in batteries.” - Mark Lynas

🌐 About WePlanet

WePlanet is an international movement campaigning for science-based solutions to the climate, nature and development crises. Through conversations like this one, we challenge bad ideas, spotlight better ones, and make the case for a more abundant, resilient and hopeful future.

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