Interested in #batteries, the #circulareconomy, and #sustainability? Check out this post on the EU's new Batteries Regulation, prepared with Stella Perantakou and Nina Spieler. Please also join me at the "Batteries Summit", with Sidley Austin LLP, Exponent, and Deloitte, on Wednesday, 26 July, featuring Brittany Bolen, Sam Boxerman, Justin Savage, and Ted Murphy discussing law and policy in the US and the EU. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eH3u3AsT.
New EU rules for the battery supply chain. On 10 July 2023, the EU adopted a “cradle-to-grave” Regulation on Batteries and Waste Batteries, which will be published and enter into force shortly. The Regulation is an important part of the EU’s push for greater corporate sustainability; a circular economy; and strategic autonomy with respect to the raw materials needed for the “green” transition: cobalt, lead, lithium, and nickel. The Regulation establishes extensive requirements at the upstream and downstream levels of the battery supply chain. Upstream, the requirements include battery-specific due diligence on raw materials (to sit alongside the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and proposed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive); requirements on the carbon footprint, recycled content, performance and durability, removability and replaceability, and labelling and information. At the downstream level, there is Extended Producer Responsibility for waste collection and treatment, and minimum requirements for recycling efficiency and material recovery. Companies in the battery supply chain will also have to look out for the EU’s newly proposed Critical Raw Material Act, which will introduce supply chain requirements for a number of raw materials important for battery manufacturing. Please see our note for or an overview of the new rules. Nicolas Lockhart Nina Spieler
