The cobalt industry shares European Commission’s objective to mainstream sustainability and climate across all policies

The pledge to ‘mainstream’ all policies around the European Green Deal to achieve EU climate goals is of utmost important to the cobalt industry. Though the European Green Deal Communication, the new level of ambition from the European Commission provides a real opportunity for all actors, public and private, to participate in ensuring that the EU is the first carbon neutral continent by 2050.

Critical Raw Materials such as cobalt are of key importance to enable a green, competitive and resource efficient economy. In achieving these objectives, the EU must not forget the interface with other policies such as chemicals management processes. If these processes are not integrated in the European Green Deal, it could stop the development of key value-chains in the European Union such as the one of batteries.

In particular, the Cobalt Institute stresses the importance of:

• an EU Industrial Strategy for a Clean and Circular Economy where all sectors participate in enabling sustainable value-chains to power the Green Economy of tomorrow, from mining of raw material to recycling. Through its participation to the European Battery Alliance, the cobalt industry precisely commits to enabling a clean strategic value chain for Europe.
• a Sustainable Transport Strategy. Cobalt is key to the safety, stability and efficiency of a battery, and is essential in the deployment of the Lithium-Ion battery technology across Europe. Critical to enabling zero-carbon mobility and achieve the 55% emission reduction ambition by 2030, a coherent regulatory framework between chemicals management and climate policies is necessary.
• a zero pollution ambition for a toxic free environment. The industry welcomes the commitment from the Commission to simplify and strengthen chemicals management processes which must be based on sound scientific evidence. It further appreciates the assurance to develop a ‘one substance, one assessment’ guidance which ought to focus on improving the Risk Management Option Analysis (RMOA) process.

The Cobalt Institute (CI) is an international non-profit trade association composed of the major producers, users, recyclers, and traders of cobalt The CI promotes the sustainable and responsible production and use of cobalt in all its forms.