A couple of years ago, rare flamingos graced a shimmering salt lake in the Chilean Atacama desert. A beautiful sight, but one likely to disappear for future generations.
Chile is home to some of the world’s most important deposits of lithium, and the indigenous people of the desert who mine the rare earth mineral in the salt flats are experiencing the beginnings of a cultural, economic and environmental earthquake.
Lithium is necessary for batteries and batteries are the key to de-carbonizing the power and transport sectors. The reason is two-fold: Transport is going electric and that means battery-powered vehicles, while power generation is switching to renewable sources, electricity from which, if not used instantly, needs to be stored somewhere.
That “somewhere†is batteries, not the only storage solution but one of the most flexible that can be rolled out globally, regardless of geography or project size.
Batteries are now a hot topic and the battery value-chain is under scrutiny. Can the world meet the growing demand? Are the environmental factors under consideration? Has anyone done the math?
The answer to all those questions is yes: The Global Battery AllianceOpens a new window , part of the World Economic Forum.
Rapid adoption
EdieOpens a new window , the London-based sustainability website, coveredOpens a new window a report from the battery alliance about the industry’s drive Opens a new window to cut carbon emissions. Batteries, the report says, could slash carbon emissions in the power and transport sector by 30%. Because the combined sectors account for 40% of global greenhouse emissions, batteries are destined to have a major impact.
But it’s not an open road to get there. For those two sectors to fall in line with the Paris Agreement’s ‘2°C’ commitmentsOpens a new window would require a 19-fold expansion of the industry over the next 11 years, with $550 billion  invested across the battery value chain – from mining and extraction to battery recycling.
The goal in order to meet the Paris targets is to create a sustainable and just battery value chain, creating jobs and safeguarding human rights.
Without such global efforts, the necessary global ramp-up may happen, but not quickly enough and not under the right conditions.
Cobalt conundrum
As the major source to fuel batteries, lithium, cobalt, manganese and nickel are mined in some of the world’s poorest countries. Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a mainstay of the local economy but also home to appalling health and safety practices as well as child exploitation.
The new battery vision needs a human face.
And the desired carbon reduction effect can only be achieved in transportation if the electricity charging the new electric cars is renewable. Plugging the car into electricity produced by carbon-burning power stations defeats the purpose.
Every part of the value-chain needs to be scrutinized closely, and the Global Battery Alliance should be applauded for taking a comprehensive view of an industry getting started. To get all players aligned quickly with a sustainable plan, the alliance’s recommendations include:
- Increase the share of electric vehicles produced by automakers.
- Accelerate the rollout of electric vehicle charging stations.
- Invent technologies for electric vehicles to communicate with power grids.
- Increase the share of renewable energy measures in the battery value chain.
- Adopt regulations permitting renewable batteries to be a source of electricity.
- Finance the sustainable expansion of the battery industry.
- Ensure the value chain deals with related social, environmental and economic issues.
As the world tries to engineer its way out of the global warming crisis, such big thinking is badly needed. But when we make the switch to electric cars, it cannot be at the expense of child laborers in the Congo or the flamingos of the Atacama.