The battery rush and global supply chains: Regulatory pathways toward secure supplies of critical minerals in the EU and US

As governments across the world implement strategies to decarbonize their economies, the technologies on which they rely risk shifting the environmental and social liabilities of energy end-use applications from developed economies to the Global South. With electrification at the forefront of efforts to achieve these goals, one key technology—the battery—plays an outsize role in this shift. Even as investments in electric vehicles and battery electric storage systems help curb emissions of final products, key facets of the battery supply chain—from mining and processing of critical minerals to manufacturing, transport, and end-of-life management—emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, threaten water and soil health, and violate human rights. Collective global efforts to reach the Paris Agreement goals have given rise to greater recognition of the political and economic risks of shifting emissions and unsustainable practices from one jurisdiction to another. Countries and regions with the highest growth in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries—the dominant battery technology for electric vehicles and grid energy storage—have made some efforts to clean up battery production. While Europe—projected to be the world’s second largest lithium-ion battery cell manufacturer after China by 2025—leads the way in policy and regulatory planning for sustainable battery manufacturing, the United States, China, Australia, Korea, and Japan have all made efforts to address sustainability concerns across battery supply chains critical to the clean energy transition. A significant and growing body of research evaluates national policy and regulatory frameworks for economic decarbonization. Likewise, studies on decarbonization and sustainability in specific industries relevant to battery manufacturing—for example, mining, chemical processing, cell assembly, and recycling—evaluate sectoral policy and technical approaches in isolation. While existing literature provides a strong basis for assessing individual processes and policies related to battery supply chains, comprehensive evaluations of frameworks governing battery sustainability remain scarce. This paper aims to address this gap in the literature by defining key facets of battery sustainability, undertaking an empirical review of regulations in states with the highest expected growth in lithium-ion battery manufacturing between now and 2040, and incorporating stakeholder interviews on needed technological and policy innovation, with the ultimate goal of drawing conclusions on key drivers and impacts of state-led efforts to promote sustainable battery manufacturing.