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The Global Battery Alliance (GBA) is a public-private collaboration platform of 70 public and private sector organizations founded in 2017 that has become the global platform to help establish and collaborate on a sustainable battery value chain.
Glencore has announced its enlistment as a member of the Global Battery Alliance (GBA), an initiative from the World Economic Forum.
The Vision
A circular and responsible battery value chain is one of the major drivers to realize the 2°C Paris Agreement goal in the transport and power sectors, setting course towards achieving the 1.5°C goal if complemented with other technologies and collaborative efforts. By 2030, batteries could enable 30% of the required reductions in carbon emissions in the transport and power sectors, provide 600 million people with access to electricity, as well as create 10 million safe and sustainable jobs around the world. To realise this potential, the battery value chain will have to expand by almost 20 times over the next decade. Action is needed in the supply chain to establish sustainable market conditions and accelerate battery deployment in support of this vision.
The Opportunity
The opportunities with regard to batteries are twofold: how can the deployment of batteries be accelerated and how can these batteries be produced responsibly and sustainably? To accelerate deployment, more investment needs to be attracted along the entire value chain as well as into application infrastructure including charging infrastructure. Batteries also need to become more affordable through lower production costs, higher utilization and improved business cases for end users.
To produce these batteries responsibly and sustainably means lowering emissions, eliminating human rights violations, ensuring safe working conditions across the value chain, and improving repurposing and recycling. For example, the extraction of the raw materials needed for batteries have been linked to dangerous working conditions, child labour, poverty and other social and environmental concerns. Battery production is also linked to a high carbon footprint and the lifecycle impacts depend on the carbon balance of the energy mix in batteries.
The GBA and its members aim to help establish, and collaborate on, a sustainable global battery value chain by 2030.
“The GBA’s mission aligns with Glencore’s overall objective to responsibly source the commodities that advance everyday life. As a responsible producer and marketer of commodities essential to the energy and mobility transition – such as cobalt, nickel and copper – we intend to play an active role in the alliance, and to join forces with many of our business partners to help establish and promote a circular and responsible battery value chain,” the company was recently quoted.
Being part of the GBA will further enable the company to fulfil its commitment to the transition to a low-carbon economy.
“We look forward to being part of this important global initiative and will publish details on specific initiatives and actions and in due course.”