| Last Friday, the European Parliament, EU Council and Commission reached an agreement for a new regulation for more sustainable batteries. [1]
ECOS and Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) welcome the agreement as an important contribution to the mobility transition. For the first time, a European law lays down specifications for the entire life cycle of batteries, including in electric vehicles, mobile phones and laptops.
However, there is great need for further action regarding the service life of batteries, the extraction of raw materials such as copper, aluminium and iron, and the collection and recycling of batteries. DUH and ECOS call on the European Commission to fully exploit the circular economy potential for recycling batteries – this work should be done as soon as possible through supplementary legal acts.
On the positive side, the regulation will allow to better protect environmental and human rights in the processes related to raw material extraction, including lithium, cobalt, graphite or nickel. The CO2 footprint of batteries will be limited, and recycling will be improved.
In particular, the lifespan of batteries in electric vehicles must be extended through far-reaching requirements on durability, reparability and reuse. For example, using old electric car batteries as stationary power storage units must become the norm. Deposit systems must ensure the collection of high-energy batteries, for example, those in power tools or e-scooters. This way, we can recycle batteries correctly and avoid fires due to incorrect disposal.
After the agreement in the trialogue, the EU Parliament and Council must formally agree, which means that the regulation will likely come into force only in a few months.
Barbara Metz, Executive Director, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, said:
‘With this overdue agreement, groundbreaking specifications for more sustainable batteries can finally come into force: The CO2 footprint of batteries will be limited, and requirements for performance and durability will be set. Companies must be able to trace the raw materials used and take precautions to prevent environmental and human rights violations. For the first time, separate recycling quotas and quotas for recyclate use are introduced for metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel’.
‘Unfortunately, some problems remain unresolved. If there is a pure switch from cars with combustion engines to electric cars, the environmental impact will increase significantly due to the rise in battery production. We need a fundamental shift away from private transport to buses, trains and bikes. In addition, the Commission must now exploit the circular economy potential for recycling batteries and their raw materials as quickly as possible through supplementary legal acts’.
Rita Tedesco, Head of Energy Transition, Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS):
‘It is now crucial that the European Commission quickly launches the promised implementing acts and kickstarts the development of European standards on critical raw materials, durability and performance, as well as carbon footprint… and make sure they are ambitious. For example, only electricity from renewable sources should be used in battery production in the future. We also need to develop standardised ways to test whether a battery is suitable for reuse or not.’
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