Political momentum is swaying in favour of European solar panel manufacturers, as work progresses on a new EU law banning forced labour practices that would effectively block Chinese imports.
The UK risks becoming a dumping ground for the products of forced labour from Xinjiang province in China if it rejects reforms proposed by members of the foreign affairs select committee with cross-party support, ministers have been warned.
Europe’s solar power industry has warned policymakers not to impose tariffs on imports, amid fears that disrupting supplies of products from China would seriously damage Europe’s ability to rapidly install clean energy.
In Broad Daylight reveals how forced labour in the Uyghur region has ripple effects throughout international solar supply chains. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has placed millions of indigenous Uyghur and Kazakh citizens from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR or Uyghur Region) into what the government calls “surplus labour” and “labour transfer” programmes.
The European Commission on Friday (9 December) officially launched the EU’s solar photovoltaic industry alliance, with the aim of regaining production lost to China and establishing a “Made in Europe” industry.
The use of forced labour in the solar panel industry, particularly among the Uyghur population in China, has been a growing concern. Reports have linked several solar companies with factories in Xinjiang to forced labour practices, particularly for workers from the Uighur minority.
Since 2016, the Chinese government has held over two million Uyghurs in concentration camps where they are subject to routine torture, systematic rape, forced sterilisation and forced labour.
Researchers at Sheffield Hallam University have published a report which concludes that almost the entire global solar panel industry is implicated in the forced labour of Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples