The Problem: Some of the so called ‘conflict minerals’ such as coltan used to make the phones, laptops and other tech we use every day are funding conflict in DR Congo.
The Solution: Threaten a blood tax on tech to spark an ethical minerals initiative.
Every year an article is published in the news about the damage caused by mining minerals such as coltan that are vital for the electronic hardware in the technology we use every day, from phones to laptops to smart watches. For example, minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have been linked to financing rebel groups in the county to perpetuate conflict in what has been described as the ‘rape capital of the world’.
Even so, many consumers remain unaware of the damage caused by the hardware we use, while for those that are aware few ethical options exist; there is a Fairphone smartphone, but limited other options.
I therefore propose creating a blood tax for technology products. The tax would not fall on all hardware sales, but instead would be focused solely on companies whose products contained minerals that have been associated with conflict and who refused to sign up to purchase those minerals from a new ethical minerals initiative.
Take products containing coltan, for example. The DRC is not the only source of coltan, however DRC coltan has been identified as a conflict mineral. Therefore, any company that uses coltan in its products is creating demand, even if they do not purchase it from the DRC.
To avoid the blood tax, all companies using coltan would have to sign up to purchase at least 10% of their coltan from a DRC ethical coltan initiative as well as proving that they do not use conflict minerals in their supply chains.
The blood tax would be equivalent to an extra 30% on the price of a product or £50, whichever is the greater value, and it would be mandatory to print on packaging and advertise at point of sale that the price included a blood tax.
The tax would therefore be visible to consumers, creating a rapid way to generate widespread awareness of the problem, and also make a significant difference in the cost of products to provide incentives for companies to avoid the tax.
That, in turn, would create demand for products from an ethical coltan initiative in the DRC, providing the finance needed for such an initiative. And at the same time, it provides a simple way for companies to avoid the blood tax and offer consumers an ethical choice; there is nothing worse than raising awareness of a problem people are unknowingly buying into and then failing to offer them a way to avoid it, as that simply creates apathy.
The initiative itself would be focused not just on preventing minerals from funding conflict, but actively using mining and mineral processing as a means to help support development and peacebuilding in the DRC, turning a source of finance for conflict into a source of finance for peace.
Tech is a trillion dollar industry that has created swathes of billionaires and products used by people everyday; how much better if those products fund peace rather than war.
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