New EU regulation could boost GO demand from car, electronics producers

As part of the circular economy ambitions of the European Green Deal, the Battery Regulation promotes a low carbon footprint in batteries and adopts a full life-cycle approach (LCA) to assess it. It will apply to all types of batteries, i.e. portable batteries, automotive batteries, electric vehicle batteries and industrial batteries, etc. including those incorporated into appliances, manufactured both outside of and inside the EU.

Guarantees of origin (GOs) with low lifecycle emissions such as hydro, wind and nuclear could be used to manage batteries’ footprint. Since the regulation applies to batteries manufactured both outside and inside the EU, more entities joining GO consumer ranks (e.g. carmakers, electronics firms etc.) could spur demand for EACs globally as soon as this year. To ensure transparency, the regulation requires a version of the LCA study to be made public; to avoid greenwashing, verification of the LCA results will be enforced.