By Kenza Sara Elazkem, GAIA’s North Africa Outreach Coordinator.
As you might already know, GAIA launched a new program focused on batteries last April – primarily electric vehicle batteries – with an aim to understand the implications of the growing waste stream of electric vehicle batteries, and to develop a strategic framework for zero waste solutions to electric vehicle battery waste for a just transition and climate justice.
On the 24th and 25th of April, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) held its “Used Electric Vehicles, Battery End-of-Life & Circularity – Africa Workshop” as part of its Global Electric Mobility Programme. GAIA and some of its members attended the workshop and here’s what we’d like you to know about it:
- What is UNEP’s Global Electric Mobility Programme?
As countries are shifting to zero-emissions electric mobility to meet their Paris Climate Agreement targets and reduce increasing air pollution, UNEP developed a programme with partners from the private sector, finance and academia, to help low and middle income countries achieve their goals faster. The programme provides technical support and training at the country and regional levels. It creates communities of practice to share lessons and best practices. It provides a helpdesk for the countries and cities keen to introduce electric mobility and establishes marketplaces to mobilize financing and bring together countries, cities and e-mobility suppliers and financiers. - Where are the Programme’s projects being implemented?
Several African countries have engaged with the programme on one or several of their its 3 e-mobility projects:
–Electric two and three wheelers: Sierra Leone, Togo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar.
–Electric buses: Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Tanzania and Seychelles.
–Light-duty vehicles: Tunisia
More partnerships with UNEP’s Electric Mobility Programme are under discussion in Ghana, Zambia and Mozambique. - Used EVs and Africa
Based on second-hand vehicle imports to Africa and EV adoption targets in the Global North, we can expect nearly 3 million electric vehicles to arrive on the continent from Europe, Japan and the United States by 2050. There are a few things to take into consideration here.- Importing countries need to build charging infrastructure;
- All of these cars have different charging systems requiring different charging stations;
- In some countries, the electric grid does not cover all the territory;
- What happens to the EV batteries at the end of life of the vehicle;
- How can they be reused and repurposed in the continent.
- Africa’s EV industry
Africa’s EV industry is barely nascent considering that the automobile industry is rather small on the continent. It is mainly concentrated on making electric light weight vehicles right now such as two and three wheelers and is especially concentrated in countries from the East African communities. Other countries such as Morocco are building gigafactories to start making car batteries for cars made to be exported to Europe. - Battery Recycling
Most recyclers on the market say the volume of batteries is not consequential yet to invest in recycling infrastructure. There is also the concern of constantly evolving and changing battery chemistries that will force . Recyclers are also looking at repurposing batteries after they test for faulty cells. They custom make and reassemble battery packs from healthy cells to be used for different energy storage solutions.
Discussions around the end of life of EV batteries and energy storage batteries in general are slowly starting to pick up in different parts of the continent as the push for e-mobility keeps growing. Compared to other parts of the world, Africa has lower rates of individually owned vehicles. In order to ensure sustainable growth, the continent needs to keep its mobility strategies geared towards mass transit systems. Countries need to put in more regulations regarding the conditions and kinds of imported EVs and their batteries to ensure vehicles are not imported to go straight to the scrapyard. There is also a need for battery manufacturers to take into consideration battery reuse, repurpose, dismantling and recycling when designing them. Africa has relatively a small window of time before it is drowned in used EVs and their waste coming from the Global North, just as it is with e waste, plastics, textiles… There is an urge to form global partnerships between countries, industries, civil society and scrapyard workers to ensure that the energy and e-mobility transition is a just and sustainable one.