Recom­men­dations for the Nordic Countries to Improve Circularity of Batteries

Pressures on the environment have been high in recent years both in the Nordics and globally. While technological development within batteries and the increased use of batteries are likely to reduce some of these pressures, others will increase, sometimes significantly, as more raw materials are needed and the energy consumption to produce batteries are high. The aim of this policy brief is to help the Nordics address these problems and promote the Nordics as a forerunner within lithium-ion batteries and circular economy.
Recommendations are:
  1. to improve circularity of batteries and equipment with policy measures focusing on existing and known technologies, including batteries; and
  2. to contribute to creating the right framework conditions for the Nordic countries to be centrally placed in an innovative, sustainable, and competitive battery ecosystem in Europe
The policy brief details the recommendations with 10 concrete activities and provides the Executive Summary from the study report. The brief has been made on the basis of the study “Batteries in the Nordics – changing for circularity” funded by the Nordic Working Group for Circular Economy (NCE) under the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The study has been carried out by Viegand Maagøe (Denmark) and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute (Sweden) from October 2020 to December 2021.
The policy recommendations for the Nordic countries to improve circularity of batteries and equipment with policy measures focus on existing and known technologies, including batteries, through these activities:
  1. Adopt the measures from the working documents for smartphones regarding relevant measures for batteries across all product groups containing batteries that fall under the Ecodesign Directive. One of the most comprehensive sets of measures relevant for products containing batteries is found in the working documents for smartphones, where both Ecodesign requirements and energy label are proposed. Adoption of these measures can be a good example to be used when setting or reviewing requirements for other product groups.
  2. Create a new metric regarding battery performance, allowing manufacturers a higher degree of freedom to develop the best-suited batteries for the specific application. Instead of setting requirements on cycles, it could be relevant to develop a metric that calculates the lifetime of the battery, which needs to fit the expected life of the product.
  3. Ensure interoperable batteries across product groups with batteries that have many similarities in order that detachable rechargeable batteries can be used across a range of different products.
  4. Support the battery proposal. The proposed Battery Regulation is quite comprehensive and covering many relevant areas. In the current policy process, the Nordics may discuss internally and with other Member States if common positions can be reached and how it can be supported.
  5. Use Green Public Procurement to increase the demand for sustainable batteries, where the Nordics can suggest the European Commission and the GPP Advisory Group to include batteries in a technical study aiming at setting GPP criteria for batteries
  6. Support a far-reaching review of the Ecodesign directive and push for inclusion of the transport sector, where the Nordics should push to remove the exemption for means of transport from the Ecodesign Directive – or at least that the exemption should not apply to batteries for means of transport. This can be fed into the current process of Sustainable Products Initiative amending or replacing the current Ecodesign Directive.
Policy recommendations for the Nordic countries to contribute to creating the right framework conditions for the Nordic countries to be centrally placed in an innovative, sustainable, and competitive battery ecosystem in Europe focus on these activities:
  1. Positioning the Nordic countries to benefit from sustainability requirements in the new EU Regulatory Framework for Batteries proposed by the Commission and expected to be adopted during 2022. The Nordic countries should position themselves to support and subsequently benefit from the expected (i) rules on recycled content; (ii) measures to improve the collection and recycling rates of all batteries; (iii) progressively phasing out non-rechargeable batteries; and (iv) sustainability and transparency requirements for batteries (carbon footprint, ethical sourcing of raw materials, security of supply, and facilitating reuse, repurposing, and recycling).
  2. Preparing Nordic project developers for participation in the available financial support for European projects demonstrating and scaling up innovative sustainable battery technologies and business models, which will include making public funding or financing for battery cells manufacturing projects available in order to incentivise, leverage and 'de-risk' private sector investment through Horizon Europe, Invest EU, LIFE and the Innovation Fund in support of innovative battery-related deployment projects.
  3. Facilitating Nordic research project participation in the improved European research and innovation funding opportunities for battery technology, which will include making available, research and innovation funds (Horizon Europe) for battery-related innovation projects and – in the longer term – the launch of a large-scale Future Emerging Technologies Flagship research initiative, which could support long-term research in advanced battery technologies for the 2025+ timeframe.
  4. Working with TSOs (Transmission System Operator) and national energy market regulators to ensure that the necessary regulatory framework and pricing mechanisms allow for sustainable battery technology demonstration and scaleup for battery technology for decentral storage of intermittent renewable energy. This is on one side essential for the electrification of large parts of the Nordic economies and meeting climate goals by 2030 and 2050 and on the other side provides a range of services which is not currently priced in the market (frequency response, reactive power, provision of inertia).
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