Germany to become third country to join sustainable battery alliance

Germany will join the Global Battery Alliance platform. Although the alliance, which focuses on minimizing environmental impacts, protecting human rights and creating benefits for all stakeholders, already has more than 180 members, Germany will be only the third country to join. Clean Energy Wire reported.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced this week at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference that Germany would become only the third country, after Zambia and Serbia, to join the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) platform. Founded in 2017 at the World Economic Forum, the alliance’s mission is primarily to minimize environmental impacts, protect human rights and create benefits for all stakeholders.

Scholz, who highlighted the key role of batteries in the energy transition, said it was essential to ensure environmentally sustainable battery production, including the sourcing of key raw materials such as lithium.

“We must work together to ensure that the people affected benefit,” Scholz said.

GBA Executive Director Inga Petersen told Clean Energy Wire that Germany’s involvement, as one of the key G20 countries, demonstrates confidence in the alliance’s work and will also provide financial support.

Recycling is also a priority alongside mining

Growing demand for batteries is prompting increasingly frequent concerns about their environmental and human rights impacts. Battery production is energy-intensive and involves a range of raw materials whose extraction can cause social and environmental harm. Supply chains therefore need to be closely monitored and managed.

In addition to mining, there is also a strong emphasis on recycling used batteries. For example, EU countries approved a regulation last year requiring, among other things, car battery manufacturers to ensure the separate collection of old car batteries, reaching 63 % by 2027 and 73 % by 2030. The collected batteries must be recycled, with critical raw materials kept in the European manufacturing process.

From 2026, every battery will also have its own “passport”, and from 2027 a QR code containing information on its capacity, power, lifetime and chemical composition. It will also include a carbon footprint declaration—the amount of emissions generated during production.

Recycling plant operators are responding to the expected sharp rise in demand for battery recycling. According to an analysis by the German research institute Fraunhofer, recycling lines for lithium-ion batteries with a total capacity of 400 000 tonnes per year will be commissioned by 2025. That capacity should be sufficient to handle the total volume of batteries reaching the end of their lives.