🇬🇧英國戰線|四成英國太陽能版被揭來自新疆 或成下一個人權炸彈】

由於中國是太陽能版重要出口國之一,當中涉及人權暴行的新疆地區亦是主要生產基地,英媒《衞報》剛剛發表調查報道,發現四成英國太陽能版由涉及新疆暴行的中資廠商製造,包括晶科能源、晶澳太陽能、天合光能等中資公司,由於英國國會剛剛通過決議,確認新疆涉「種族滅絕」,未知會影響這些來自新疆的太陽能版進口。

根據美國顧問公司Horizo n Advisory早前一份報告,當中綜合所有公開記錄和中國媒體報道,顯示現時全球三分之一太陽能版原料多晶矽源於新疆地區,區內四大多晶矽製造商都與新疆強迫勞動有關,這四大製造商分別是全新能源、保利協鑫能源、新特能源、東方希望。這些廠商不但資助軍事化愛國主義教育的培訓,並與早前被美英加歐四國制裁的「新疆生產建設兵團」有合作。

《衞報》調查報道估計,現時多達四成英國公司會用到「新疆矽」產品,涉及國防部、英國煤炭公司、英國最大水務公司「聯合公用事業」,以及多個可再生能源的開發商。

報道指出,即使不少交易在2016年「新疆集中營」爆光前發生,但亦有不少協議最近才簽訂,如國防部近日公布在陸軍基地安裝80個太陽能發電廠,就用上了數千塊Trina Solar製造的太陽能版,《衞報》批評事件反映英國企業及政府對供應鏈的審查亳不認真。

由於多晶矽生產是能源密集型產業,需要極高溫下提煉純矽,由於中國在新疆多低成本的燃煤電廠,這令中共在市場有主導優勢。

事實上,隨着各國消費者對新疆血汗產品的人權意識抬頭,業界早已關注太陽能版背後的人權隱憂,美國太陽能產業協會早已建議會員企業,最早今年6月之前將供應鏈移出新疆,並建立追蹤系統,以確保購買的產品與新疆無關。

由於英國政界近期積極推動修訂《現代奴役法》,希望禁止涉及強制勞動的產品進口,相信新疆太陽能板將成下一個導火線。

https://twitter.com/guardiannews/status/1386372273309896706
https://twitter.com/guardianeco/status/1386356596008124417

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2 comments

Brian
I would say 40% is actually surprisingly low, given that China supplies something like 80% of the world's polysilicon (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/business/economy/china-biden-solar-panels.html). Trade is an area where, if left to markets alone, not much will change, not fast anyway. Apart from addressing individual issues like this, the key is to demand that when international trade and investment agreements are negotiated, labor, the environment and human rights standards be integral and binding elements. The "original sin" is when neoliberal trade agreements were rammed through by Western governments in cahoots with business in the 1990s, entirely decoupled from labor, environment and human rights, creating the Frankenstein's monster that is China today.
Brian
Brian
I would say 40% is actually surprisingly low, given that China supplies something like 80% of the world's polysilicon (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/business/economy/china-biden-solar-panels.html). Trade is an area where, if left to markets alone, not much will change, not fast anyway. Apart from addressing individual issues like this, the key is to demand that when international trade and investment agreements are negotiated, labor, the environment and human rights standards be integral and binding elements. The "original sin" is when neoliberal trade agreements were rammed through by Western governments in cahoots with business in the 1990s, entirely decoupled from labor, environment and human rights, creating the Frankenstein's monster that is China today.
I should add that the Trans-pacific Partnership, which was seen as a way of shifting away from China, repeated the same mistakes as those WTO agreement of the '90s, by excluding sufficient labor provisions. As a result, Obama in the US faced intense opposition from within his own party before Trump killed it. Still, just in the last five years, both Western governments and businesses have really begun to see the downsides of business with China, and this is an opportunity to prevent future bad deals with the CCP. But as solar panels illustrate, in so many areas, the world has become so dependent on China as source of goods, it will take considerable effort and a long time to shift away from it. Many businesses have been burned so badly by China that, if they could, they would move, but few developing economies has arisen that can easily replace China as a source of low-cost high-quality goods.