context: The need to establish a robust product carbon footprint database has become increasingly urgent, especially following the introduction of the EU's Batteries Regulation. This issue was a focal point for several experts at this year's Two Sessions in March. The PRC dominates global lithium battery production, but its heavy reliance on coal results in significantly higher CO2 emissions compared to other manufacturing countries. Experts argue that increasing the proportion of green energy and enhancing the traceability of China's battery supply chain are critical steps for protecting domestic companies and ensuring sustainable practices.
Establishing a product carbon footprint database can help Chinese firms avoid overestimation of product footprints due to a lack of data, argues Qiu Lin 邱林 Envision Intelligent Zero Carbon chief scientist at the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance annual meeting held 30 May.
To further reduce carbon footprints, Lin suggests
- increasing the direct supply of green electricity is the number one means of reducing carbon footprints
- due to overreliance on thermal power, China’s battery industry carbon footprint is 20-40 percent higher than other battery manufacturing countries such as Japan and South Korea
The EUs new Batteries Regulation calls for comprehensive supervision of the power battery supply chain, including minerals mining, battery manufacturing, utilisation and recycling. At present, the PRC lacks a carbon footprint database for the entire life-cycle of battery products.
Carbon footprint refers to the CO2 emissions generated during the entire life cycle of the battery, including from upstream raw materials mining and processing, midstream battery manufacturing and transportation and downstream consumer use.
At least 30 percent of the carbon footprint of an electric vehicle comes from the battery, explains Liang Rui 梁锐 New Wanda vice-president. The focus of battery carbon footprint management is on the supply chain, especially manufacturing of cathode and anode materials.
In addition, with international policies and customers’ increasingly stringent supply chain ESG (environment, social, governance) management, domestic battery companies will inevitably have to export data overseas. But companies currently face security and compliance challenges in data export. This requires joint efforts from regulatory agencies, industry associations, firms and institutions argues Liang, including
- issuing detailed rules for power battery data export compliance under ‘Measures for data export security assessment’
- helping companies improve data export awareness and compliance, data classification and security risk assessment