Think global act local: the dependency of global lithium-ion battery emissions on production location and material sources

Abstract The pursuit of low-carbon transport has significantly increased demand for lithium-ion batteries. However, the rapid increase in battery manufacturing, without adequate consideration of the carbon emissions associated with their production and material demands, poses the threat of shifting the bulk of emissions upstream. In this article, a life cycle assessment (LCA)-inspired model is developed to account for battery material and energy demand contributions for the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of lithium-ion batteries across the world’s dominant battery manufacturing locations. Analysis of published LCA data reveals a significant level of uncertainty associated with the carbon emissions of key battery materials, with the 95 % confidence interval for nickel and cobalt containing chemistries ranging from 40 to 90 kg CO2-eq kWh-1. The gate-to-gate carbon footprint of battery manufacturing is found to vary highly with predicted median values ranging between 0.15 and 94.5 kg CO2-eq kWh-1, depending on production location. Leading western-world battery manufacturing locations in the US and Europe, such as Kentucky and Poland are found to have comparable carbon emissions to Chinese rivals, even exceeding the carbon emissions of battery manufacturing in some Chinese provinces. Such resolution on material and energy contributions to the carbon footprint of batteries is essential to inform policy- and decision- making in order to minimise the carbon emissions of the battery value chain.