EU companies warn against ‘counterproductive’ delays to batteries law

In a public letter addressed to EU Environment Ministers ahead of their meeting on 20 December, eight businesses working in the battery supply chain ask to speed up the environmental and ethical rules that will regulate them.

Batteries are today considered as a key technology to enable the green transition of the mobility and energy sectors. To fully take advantage of the benefits batteries in decarbonsing the society, it must be ensured that batteries are produced with as little environmental impact as possible and under strict environmental protection regulations.

Batteries account for the largest part of CO2 emission in the production of an electrical vehicle. It is therefore of paramount importance to reduce the CO2 footprint for batteries – in all steps of its life cycle – to make the transition of the automotive industry truly sustainable. Sustainably produced raw materials are a crucial factor, as well as access to renewable energy for the battery production itself.

The Sustainable Battery regulation, proposed in December 2020, will be the single most important tool that enables Europe to build a truly sustainable battery industry. The ambitious proposal forwards many of the key sustainability pillars such as mandatory due diligence for raw materials, CO2 footprint and recycling targets that will together promote a battery production with lower environmental footprint.

This important piece of regulation has been welcome by the industry. But there are now concerns about delays in its adoption, namely the rules aiming at reducing the batteries carbon footprint and mandatory supply chain due diligence. Therefore several European companies urge European public bodies to embrace this regulation without further delays as the foundations for a sustainable European battery industry are being formed now. An open letter to warn against potential delays to new EU battery regulation was signed on Wednesday by European industrial key stakeholder providing Europe with low carbon raw materials and battery cells including ACC, Northvolt, Eramet, Verkor, Talga, Vulcan Energy, Skeleton Technologies and EIT InnoEnergy.

Read the letter on Transport&Environment website