Made in Europe: How batteries underpin the EU’s Green Deal ambitions

The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has delivered the last State of the European Union speech (SOTEU) ahead of next year’s elections and called on EU leaders to answer the “call of history” as reinforced the bloc’s backing for the Green Deal. And she hailed the EU’s low carbon centrepiece as the priority for the next term.

The vision she set out in her speech is to protect the environment, preserve future prosperity, and nurture European industry and economic growth throughout the energy transition. 

We are at pivotal moment for clean energy transitions worldwide following the pandemic, economic insecurity, and war in Europe she said. In this scenario, the European Union is seeking to deliver energy and environmental policies to keep up with the global race for clean energy technology leadership and economic growth while delivering strategies that support the Green Deal, including Circular Economy, Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act.

President von der Leyen also announced the EU Energy Platform and investments in renewables to improve the industrial policy and emphasized the importance of enhancing cooperation with Latin America and Africa, as well as diversifying and securing the supply of essential raw materials to accelerate the transition to green and digital technologies.

Electrification is critical to achieving the EU’s climate goals of decarbonisation and to improve the way we live, supporting clean energy sources and reducing impact on the environment. 

The lead battery value chain in the EU underpins – and is critical to – the bloc’s battery low carbon plans. Lead batteries are the gold standard in adopting circular economy principles, through an end-to-end recycling process, the raw materials needed for new lead batteries are created at the end-life cycle. The lead from lead batteries can be infinitely recycled with no loss of performance.  

Advanced, high-performance lead batteries are key to many applications from mobility to energy storage. They are made in Europe and recycled in Europe. And the value chain forms part of an EU battery ecosystem supporting a range of chemistries and technologies all of which make a significant contribution to Europe’s low carbon goals.