Electric vehicle batteries could create a billion tons of emissions a year

A new global modeling study warns that even “cleaner” electric-vehicle battery production may not be enough to curb emissions as demand for EVs and battery storage keeps rising. Researchers led by Wen Li at the University of Melbourne, with partners including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Sheffield, estimate lithium-ion batteries already drive about 105 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year. They project annual battery demand could rise more than tenfold by 2050 under plausible scenarios, with supply-chain emissions reaching 1.1 to 1.4 billion tons annually. The cumulative total could hit 19 to 23 billion tons without further action. Supply-side measures could cut cumulative emissions by 3.5 to 4.7 billion tons, but the paper says demand-side steps—like reducing battery sizes, extending lifetimes, and promoting shared mobility—could cut emissions by around half by 2050.