The EU’s proposed new standards for sustainable batteries are an opportunity to move away from destructive mining

Originally published on EuractivBy Benjamin Hitchcock Auciello, coordinator of Earthworks’ Making Clean Energy Clean, Just & Equitable initiative and Alex Keynes, clean vehicles manager at Transport & Environment.From the deadly Brumadinho tailings dam collapse in Brazil, which took the lives of nearly 300 people, to the destruction of sacred Aboriginal sites at Juukan Gorge in Australia, mining is wreaking havoc around the world. Conflict, displacement, pollution, corruption and fatal disasters are commonplace in the mining sector, threatening countless communities and ecosystems. Pressure to build more mines is increasing as demand for metals used in electric vehicle batteries and other low carbon infrastructure like solar panels and wind turbines skyrockets.