This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new University of Melbourne-led study has identified insights and evidence that could help mitigate the fast-rising climate impact of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Electric vehicle batteries are crucial to clean energy, but production emissions are significant.
Most LIB decarbonization research has focused on reducing emissions from the supply chain, including sourcing and refining raw materials, manufacturing and end-of-life recycling. The study's modeling found that by 2050, demand for LIBs used in electric cars, vans, buses, trucks and battery energy storage systems could rise 20-fold, leading to a tenfold increase in their supply-chain greenhouse gas emissions. The research also identified ways to reduce global LIB emissions on par with the annual emissions of the EU.
Published in the journal One Earth, the research, led by University of Melbourne associate professor Wen Li, found that cleaner production alone was not enough to mitigate the resulting annual LIB supply chain emissions. "Encompassing demand-side decarbonization strategies, such as reducing battery sizes, extending battery lifetimes and promoting shared mobility, could help reduce the predicted global carbon dioxide (CO₂)-equivalent LIB emissions over that period to 2050 by around half," said Li, from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. The study, with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Sheffield, was one of the first detailed global assessments to examine both supply-side and demand-side factors.
It was the first to examine several demand-side strategies for reducing impact on the global LIB supply chain and directly compare these contributions with ambitious supply-side decarbonization efforts that could be introduced over time. The global supply chain modeling covered battery material production, component production, battery manufacturing and end-of-life treatment from 2024 through 2050. On the supply side, cleaner production, such as switching battery chemistries, greener factories and recovering materials from used batteries, was essential, but not enough to mitigate predicted emissions increases over that time.
On the demand side, through battery technology advancement and business model innovation, researchers modeled how many batteries will be needed, their size, their longevity and their replacement needs through 2050. Addressing all four factors could help significantly reduce the number of new batteries needed around the globe for transport and energy storage. Corresponding author Li said while cleaner production helped, reducing demand was "another very large mitigation opportunity." He said supply-side decarbonization remained essential; cleaner electricity was especially important and recycling increasingly valuable.
But, he added, without the additional measures tested, the global battery supply chain could generate around 19–23 billion tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions through 2050. "Combining ambitious supply- and demand-side strategies cuts this to around 9–12 billion tonnes—roughly half," Li said. "Within that overall reduction, supply-side measures account for around 3.5–4.7 billion tonnes of mitigation, while demand-side strategies account for around 6–7 billion tonnes." "These are emissions reductions on the scale of the annual emissions of a major global economy such as the EU." Lead and first author Dr.
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