Resource-Efficient Battery Life Cycles – Driving Electric Mobility with the Circular Economy

Most current patterns of production and consumption follow a linear “extract, produce, consume, dispose” model. According to the Circular Gap Report 2020, the global economy is just 9% circular. This economic model is contributing to a massive transgression of “planetary boundaries” and the destabilisation of ecosystems and factors essential to human life such as the climate system and biodiversity. As a result, there is currently much discussion of a paradigm shift in the industrial value creation model, away from a resource-intensive system and towards a resource-productive, predominantly circular model. This shift offers significant opportunities for an industrialized, exporting nation like Germany – ultimately, it entails nothing less than a recasting of the “Made in Germany” model. The European Union and several of its member states have already developed strategic plans for the transition to a resource-efficient economic system based on circular economy principles. Non-European countries such as China, Japan and Canada are also following the same fundamental approach. However, Germany has yet to formulate a plan of its own. The Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland (CEID) is a multi-stakeholder initiative involving over fifty institutions from science, industry and civil society that aims to lay the foundations of a plan for Germany. In its interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral working groups, some 130 experts consider how to enable and implement circular economic models, exploring potential fields of application and discussing the conditions that could facilitate successful implementation. The Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland is developing targets for the transition, with a focus on the following themes: - Circular business models and digital technologies as drivers for innovation - New value networks for batteries and packaging - Framework conditions for a circular transformation and assessment of circularity’s economic potential Between October 2019 and May 2020, the Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland’s Traction Batteries working group devised a roadmap for the establishment of a circular economy for traction batteries (the batteries that drive battery electric vehicles). The report “Resource-Efficient Battery Life Cycles – Driving Electric Mobility with the Circular Economy” represents the main outcome of the working group’s deliberations. It discusses the opportunities, obstacles and potential conflicts of a circular economy for traction batteries, outlines a vision, presents plans for three pilot projects to accelerate the transformation and formulates recommendations for the main actors. Through this report, the working group’s members hope to support the initiation and long-term consolidation of a circular economy in Germany and beyond.

当前绝大多数生产与消费模式均遵循线性的“提取-生产-消费-废弃”模式。据《2020年循环经济缺口报告（Circular Gap Report 2020）》显示，全球经济的循环化程度仅为9%。此种经济模式正大幅突破“行星边界（planetary boundaries）”，并破坏生态系统以及气候系统、生物多样性等人类生存必需要素的稳定。正因如此，当前产业价值创造模式的范式转型已引发广泛讨论：即从资源消耗型体系转向以资源高效利用为核心的循环经济（circular economy）模式。此种转型对于德国这类工业化出口大国而言蕴含重大机遇——从根本上说，这无异于对“德国制造（Made in Germany）”模式的重塑。欧盟及其部分成员国已基于循环经济原则，制定了向资源高效型经济体系转型的战略规划。中国、日本、加拿大等非欧盟国家也秉持相同的核心思路推进转型，但德国尚未出台本国相关规划。德国循环经济倡议（Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland, CEID）是一项多利益相关方参与的行动，汇聚了来自科研、工业与公民社会领域的五十余家机构，旨在为德国制定相关规划奠定基础。在其跨学科、跨部门的工作组中，约130名专家正研讨如何推动并落地循环经济模式，探索潜在应用场景，并讨论助力转型成功所需的各类条件。德国循环经济倡议正制定转型目标，重点聚焦以下主题：- 作为创新驱动力的循环商业模式与数字技术- 电池与包装领域的新型价值网络- 循环转型的框架条件及循环性经济潜力评估2019年10月至2020年5月期间，德国循环经济倡议的牵引电池（traction batteries）工作组制定了一套构建牵引电池循环经济体系的路线图。《高效资源利用的电池生命周期——以循环经济驱动电动出行》（Resource-Efficient Battery Life Cycles – Driving Electric Mobility with the Circular Economy）报告是该工作组研讨成果的核心载体。报告探讨了牵引电池循环经济模式的机遇、障碍与潜在冲突，勾勒了转型愿景，提出了三项加速转型的试点项目方案，并为核心参与方制定了相关建议。该工作组期望通过本报告，助力德国乃至全球范围内循环经济的启动与长期巩固。