Identifying Challenges & Required Actions for Responsible Sourcing in the e-Mobility Sector

Within the road transportation sector, the lithium-ion battery vehicles are playing an important role in the global effort to achieve the targets set under the Paris Agreement. This briefing document summarises the State-of-play and roadmap concept of the mobility sector, including the identification of the main actors in and outside the EU and the challenges within the battery value chain for the mining, production and recycling stages. The findings indicate that the mining of the relevant materials is associated with negative social impacts like human rights violations, conflicts with local communities as well as environmental issues such as water & energy consumption, including the occurrence of toxic materials. Recycling is crucial for lithium-ion batteries at the end of their life cycle, among other things because the risk of thermal runaway is high.