WEF publishes post on digital “Battery Passport,” described as “a digital ID for batteries”

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has taken up yet another climate change and “clean green energy” cause: car batteries footprint, and what to do about it.

One thing the Davos-based group seems to be pushing are the activities of an organization called the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) – and its freshly published Greenhouse Gas Rulebook.

A piece on the group’s site manages to work a type of digital ID into the whole story, as a component in monitoring the impact car batteries have on the environment, with the rulebook designed to calculate and track “greenhouse gas” footprint linked to lithium-ion batteries, whether used in vehicles or elsewhere.

The post, penned by Co-Chair of the Global Battery Alliance Benedikt Sobotka and German chemicals giant BASF CEO and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors Martin Brudermuller, first speaks about this basically being the year of a huge global energy crisis, one they think will result in a move away from natural gas and oil.

And while growing electric car sales are viewed as a positive thing, the authors say there is not enough “transparency” when it comes to their effect on the environment. The fact is mentioned that although electric cars are considered environment-friendly, the batteries are actually made from materials like lithium, copper, and iron – this, in the context of the mining industry not being the “cleanest” out there.

Regardless, the main point seems to be to obtain insights which can ultimately lead to establishing control over how people use their batteries, and as is so often the case with the WEF-backed initiatives, establishing rules and standards before legitimate international organizations or nation-states can make their own.

And so the rulebook is said to include guidance from both the EU and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – but also, adds “around 80 globally harmonized rules in an easy-to-use format” of its own.

And then, the rulebook “aims to provide a sound method by which to generate and collect process-specific data, so users and manufacturers can compare the carbon footprints across vendors of batteries and their components.”

The plan is to do this via a framework for data collection for “the Battery Passport” – “providing an unprecedented, wide-reaching seal of assurance on the sustainability, provenance and governance of the batteries that are powering the EV (electric vehicle) revolution.”

The Battery Passport consists of “a digital ID for batteries containing data and descriptions about the ESG performance, manufacturing history, and provenance as well as advancing battery life extension and enabling recycling.”

It also consists of, “a digital platform that will collect, exchange, collate and report data among all authorized lifecycle stakeholders to advance a sustainable value chain for electric vehicle (EV) and stationary batteries. It will transparently report progress toward global goals along the battery value chain to inform policy-making for governments, the civil society and develop performance benchmarks.”

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