December 2024 
Sustainable batteries are essential to a clean energy future
To meet climate targets, the world must rapidly shift away from polluting fossil fuels toward a clean energy economy. As policy makers, industry, and consumers around the world pursue cleaner energy and transportation, the transition poses both significant challenges and opportunities.
The effort to electrify transportation includes minerals like lithium, nickel, graphite, and cobalt. These and other minerals are too often mined and processed in ways that contribute to harming communities and ecosystems. The minerals used to build batteries for the electric buses, cars, trucks, and trains that help curb the climate crisis could instead be produced as sustainably as possible around the world, with ample community buy-in at each stage of the process.
If advocates, industry, stakeholders, and policy makers work together, they can avoid replicating past problems and injustices and can instead work to build a sustainable supply chain, powered by just mining practices, and strengthened by innovations that make efficient use – and reuse – of existing mineral resources, all while protecting the communities that will be central to the clean energy future.
Introducing the 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision
To support this vision, Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and ClimateWorks Foundation founded the Global Forum for Sustainable Batteries, a worldwide network of nonprofit leaders, experts, and advocates committed to transportation electrification and mining justice. In 2024, the Forum developed a 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision to guide policymakers, organizations, companies, and the general public in the key elements of what a truly sustainable battery should be by 2040. The 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision covers all aspects of the supply chain and beyond, including:
- Sourcing of raw and recovered minerals and materials
- Battery manufacturing
- Battery end-of-life
- Battery value chain traceability
Pursuing this 2040 Vision will not only benefit affected communities and stakeholders, it holds the promise of ensuring that the world can meet the transportation electrification challenge both more sustainably and rapidly.
Learn more about the 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision.
Global Forum for Sustainable Batteries Signatories of the 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision:
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
CALSTART
Centro Movilidad Sostenible (CMS)
Ceres
Earthjustice
Earthworks
GAIA: Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)
Lead the Charge Network
Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI)
Natural Resources Defense Council
Plug In America
RMI
Sierra Club
SIRGE Coalition
Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation
The Electric Mission – South Africa
The Sunrise Project
Traction Energy Asia
Transport & Environment
UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS)
UN Environment Programme
Union of Concerned Scientists
CLEE welcomes additional signatories: if your organization would like to sign on to the 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision, please email elkind@berkeley.edu.
Quotes from members of the Global Forum for Sustainable Batteries:
“The vision provides a clear roadmap for all actors in battery value chains, from the extraction of minerals to battery manufacturing. Urgent corporate action is needed to close the gap on human rights abuses and to center shared prosperity, corporate duty of care and fair negotiations among workers, rights-holders and businesses, all underpinned by a strong commitment to Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent.”
– Caroline Avan, Head of Just Transition and Natural Resources
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
“The Centro de Movilidad Sostenible envisions decarbonizing transportation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by 2050, largely driven by the utilization of batteries. Batteries are not only the core of electric vehicles but also a versatile and resilient solution with far-reaching impacts. Their stationary uses help reduce emissions from power generators, and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) support can be invaluable in remote and emergency scenarios. Additionally, the democratization of energy through the transport and delivery of power to remote areas will undoubtedly have a significant impact on LAC.
LAC has a major role to play in this transition. Many countries in LAC are key producers of critical minerals, and the 2040 battery vision could drive significant socio-economic transformation. LAC nations, rich in essential minerals like lithium, copper, silver, and nickel, have an opportunity to leverage their resources to fuel global sustainable battery production while ensuring that mining practices support local development and add value to their territories.
However, achieving this vision will require overcoming challenges such as environmental degradation, recyclability, water resource conflicts, illegal mining, and ensuring that mining operations comply with international human rights standards, including the rights of Indigenous communities. By fostering equitable resource management and clean, efficient extraction processes, LAC could become a global leader in sustainable mineral production, contributing both to the region’s prosperity and the global transition to clean energy.”
– Stefano Sacco, Battery Sustainability Lead
Centro de Movilidad Sostenible
“As corporate and consumer demand for electric vehicles (EVs) continues to grow, it is increasingly important to have clear guidance for the responsible sourcing, manufacturing, tracing, and reuse, repurposing, and recycling of EV battery minerals, components, and other materials. Ceres believes the Global Forum for Sustainable Batteries’ 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision provides the set of principles we need to ensure a sustainable and just EV battery supply chain that powers a cleaner economy.”
– Michael Kodransky, Senior Director, Clean Transportation Program
Ceres
“With mineral demand increasing as we deploy clean energy technologies to end our reliance on planet-warming fossil fuels, we must ensure we’re sourcing minerals in the most sustainable way possible. We’re proud to support these widely-agreed upon principles from diverse stakeholders reaffirming that our energy transition should be built on a foundation of transparent supply chains, a robust circular economy, and a respect for Indigenous rights and sovereignty. We can’t repeat the mistakes of the past, and this vision provides us with clear goals to ensure batteries can be part of a truly just clean energy future.”
– Blaine Miller-McFeeley, Senior Legislative Representative
Earthjustice
“The need to move our societies away from reliance on fossil fuels and internal combustion engines is urgent, and just as important is a pathway to ensuring the batteries we rely on are sustainable and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, communities and other rights holders at every point of the value chain. Earthworks supports the 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision as we believe it represents this standard.”
– Vuyisile Ncube, Lead Corporate Campaigner: Making Clean Energy Clean, Just & Equitable
Earthworks
“The 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision reflects the points of agreement of a diverse set of organizations, and it reflects key aspects of GAIA’s batteries zero waste hierarchy, safeguards on waste battery exports, and protections for frontline communities impacted by battery waste. This is a promising first step that we hope will lay the foundations for a future environmental justice agenda centering systems change, sufficiency, and reducing production and consumption.”
– Lien De Brouckere, Global Batteries Lead
GAIA: Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
“Let’s build a green and sustainable future for the next generations by embracing renewable energy and ensuring responsible resource use throughout this transition. Holding to this battery vision will help us achieve that goal.”
– Anjali Singh, PhD, Senior Fellow
Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)
“The Lead the Charge network fully supports this 2040 vision for a Sustainable Battery. The vision charts a path towards EV batteries of the future that are free from fossil fuels and that champion equity and sustainability at every stage of the supply chain.”
– The Lead the Charge Network
“A sustainable battery is one that leaves no one behind. Doing no harm is a starting point, but we must also go further, to build a positive vision for the future where the benefits of production across the supply chain are fairly distributed. First and foremost, this means ensuring that the wealth from minerals used to produce these batteries benefit the countries and the communities where they are sourced. As one of the biggest hurdles to this goal, tackling corruption should be one of our top collective priorities. We welcome the 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision’s inclusion of these key issues and look forward to the impact it will have.”
– Patrick Heller, Chief Program Officer
Natural Resource Governance Institute
“EVs have global momentum, and the world is on its way to ride and drive electric. This 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision maps a resilient path forward that optimizes the immense opportunity of EVs to uplift our communities and transition away from fossil fuels.”
– Joel Levin, Executive Director
Plug In America
“The EV battery supply chain will grow by more than an order of magnitude over the next decade and the world has a unique opportunity to build it responsibly and sustainably from the outset. The Global Forum’s 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision lays out a clear set of objectives that industry and government must achieve to ensure that the EV battery industry maximizes the potential benefits for society.”
– E.J. McCook, Principal, Clean Transportation
RMI
“We need a sustainable and democratized battery value chain today to ensure round-the-clock green power tomorrow. This battery vision serves as a catalyst for achieving this crucial goal.”
– Balaji Raparthi, Senior Programme Manager
Shakti Foundation
“As African countries start to embrace the transition to electric mobility, what remains key is also the supply chains and more importantly the battery ecosystem. This entails from primary materials mining to end of life management. The electric mission as a not-for-profit organisation empowering the mobility and energy transition in Africa shares the vision of the 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision, which embodies our signatory along with the supporting global organisations.”
– Hiten Parmar, Executive Director
The Electric Mission
“As the battery industry powers forward, it has a unique opportunity to lead by example and set a new paradigm for the clean energy economy, propelling the shift away from fossil fuels in adjacent industries whilst also embedding justice and equity at the heart of the energy transition. “This vision provides a clear pathway forward for the global battery industry to achieve these transformative goals.”
– Chris Alford, Senior Strategist on Auto Supply Chains
The Sunrise Project
“Traction Energy Asia supports the Global Forum for Sustainable Batteries’ 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision as it provides a blueprint for Indonesia’s mining and energy sectors to eliminate social and environmental harms from the nation’s EV battery supply chain, and propel Indonesia towards becoming a global leader in EV battery sustainability.”
– Tommy Pratama, Executive Director
Traction Energy Asia
“Rapidly scaling electric vehicles and renewables is indispensable to have a fighting chance to curb climate change. Even if the overall mining volumes will decrease with the phase-out of fossil-fuels, the world will require large quantities of critical minerals like copper, lithium and manganese. We simply cannot continue the centuries’ old and unjust extraction model and should instead move towards a circular and responsible resource management. This battery vision is excellent at defining what this looks like for batteries, and I look forward to cooperating with partners across the world to make this a reality.”
– Julia Poliscanova, Senior Director
Transport & Environment
“There is an urgent for harmonized global approaches for more sustainable batteries, including the management and circularity of end-of-life batteries. UNEP supports the 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision, which is fully in line with the UN Secretary General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals (see the Panel’s document or Principles).”
– Rob De Jong, Head, Sustainable Mobility Unit, Industry and Economy Division
UN Environmental Programme (UNEP)
“The 2040 Battery Vision lays out the sustainable, equitable, and resilient future that we are working towards. To achieve this end, we need to ensure that strategies are deployed throughout the battery life cycle, from the ethical sourcing of materials to recycling at their end of life.”
– Jessica Dunn, Senior Analyst, Clean Transportation
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)