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Companies confirm that ECHA’s plan to include metallic lead in its 11th recommendation for substances to be included on the REACH authorization list threatens a wide range of EU industries, from battery manufacturers to European metal recyclers, creating more red tape and putting jobs and investment at risk.
Businesses are calling on regulators to halt the plans, after the EU’s chemicals regulator, ECHA, launched a public consultation. The move could hurt several key industries, including those producing innovative energy storage solutions and involved in building a circular economy in recycled metals and materials.
ECHA is recommending that lead, a metal used to make millions of critical batteries for everything from hybrid and electric vehicles to renewable energy storage, be added to the REACH1 “authorization list,” signaling that the substance will eventually be replaced and in the meantime can only be used through the granting of a specific permit from the European Commission.
The move would impact the EU’s advanced battery manufacturing sector, where about 90 percent of lead is used, with 80 percent coming from waste batteries that are collected and recycled safely at the end of their lives. Lead-acid batteries are one of the few examples in the EU of a truly circular economy where waste is converted into valuable new products, limiting the need to extract raw materials from the earth while creating a valuable energy storage solution and thousands of high-quality jobs in the EU.
Industry leaders warn that including lead on the REACH authorization list could lead to an investment freeze that would damage a successful and globally competitive battery value chain that supports more than 180,000 jobs in EU member states.
The lead-acid value chain is already one of the most highly regulated industries in Europe, with some of the world’s strictest regulations protecting health and the environment that have already led to substitution where alternatives exist that meet the technical needs of end users.
The consortium of companies representing a wide range of end uses is calling on ECHA, the European Commission and Member States to stop the proposed REACH authorization process that will add significant bureaucracy but bring little in the way of additional health and environmental protection. This is due to the existence of long-standing and highly effective risk management measures that already limit the risks presented by lead exposure.
Inge Maes, chair of the REACH consortium for lead (Pb) and director of sustainability at Aurubis Beerse, one of the world’s leading suppliers of non-ferrous metals, reported, “The lead value chain supports a number of vital European industries and is key to achieving low-carbon targets and supporting widespread electrification. As an essential raw material, it is safely recycled and used in advanced manufacturing facilities across Europe that meet or aim to exceed EU legislation designed to manage any risk.”
“We already operate under some of the most stringent regulations in the world, for occupational safety, health and environmental standards, the measures we take to protect workers, the environment and the communities in which we operate are world class. The problem with the REACH authorization process is that it is an obtuse and bureaucratic tool that would negatively impact a wide range of essential industries that are providing services and products that are supporting the EU’s Green Deal goals such as climate change and improving circularity. This makes no sense as, according to EU data, the REACH authorization would add little to health and environmental protection – the remaining major sources of lead emissions in the EU are not even within the scope of the REACH authorization, and the risk to workers is currently being addressed by the Commission through a strengthening of existing EU workplace standards.”
Batteries have been identified as one of the key factors in meeting future demand for clean energy storage. Industry leaders are concerned that the EU’s decarbonization goals included in the Fit for 55 package will be impossible to achieve if regulators target lead, the base material used in millions of new batteries needed in a range of different applications including motor vehicles, trains, battery electric vehicles, back-up for uninterruptible power supplies and grid energy storage.
In addition to batteries, lead is a vital raw material in other important industries that support the Green Deal’s goals, including:
- Renewable energy cables that connect wind farms to the grid;
- Solar panel systems;
- Enabling recycling of other metals and transition technology elements.
In addition, its unique properties mean it is critical to ensuring safety in aviation, hospitals and the nuclear industry.