As a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Battery Alliance, RBC’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Steve Christensen, participated in the first working group meeting of the Alliance in Geneva, Switzerland, last week. Representatives from North America, Europe and Asia were present at the meetings to discuss approaches to lifecycle management of vehicle batteries on a global scale.
The discussions focused on three main areas -- materials sourcing, circular economy and value chain innovations. The discussions were robust, with many important proposed initiatives and ideas for reducing informal lead recycling and ways to ensure that the lifecycles of newer lithium ion batteries are properly managed. The working group’s ideas will be presented at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on January 23-26 in Davos, Switzerland.The Global Battery Alliance was founded by the World Economic Forum earlier this year to be a venue for interested stakeholders to convene and discuss approaches to vehicle battery lifecycle management. Members of the Alliance include auto manufacturers, materials suppliers, battery manufacturers, environmental NGOs, academics, think tanks and industry associations.
