A battery passport is a digital stamp recording its performance against environmental, social and governance obligations. It would therefore be a logical step towards ensuring batteries make positive contributions to fighting global warming. However, a battery passport to trace content and carbon footprint has been something of a pipe dream until now.
Drivers Behind Battery Passports to Trace Content
The European Commission has now decided to regulate electric vehicle, light transport, and industrial batteries from 2024 onward. They must therefore disclose their carbon footprints from that date, and also comply with a CO2 emissions limit by 2027 according to Auto Economic Times.
Germany’s economy minister announced plans to develop a battery passport to trace carbon footprints and content ahead of those deadlines. His department funded a consortium of car and battery producers with $8.78 million to develop a classification system, and a standard to achieve this.
How and Why We Need Battery Passports Now
Batteries are becoming increasingly important in the drive to replace fossil fuel with renewable energy. However, their life cycle begins before they deliver performance, and continues on after that. They may save carbon in their operational phase. However, they generate a negative carbon footprint during manufacture.
The battery passport project aims to help various stakeholders reach their long-term goal to achieve carbon neutral storage. Moreover, those agencies include businesses, civil society, non-governmental organizations, and governments striving to comply with Paris Agreement 2030 goals.
World Economic Forum believes a circular value chain for batteries could enable a 30% reduction in power and transport sector emissions. If achieved, this would enable it to stay on track to meet the 2°C goal of the Paris Agreement. And that, indeed, is a noble goal worthy for the industry to achieve.
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