The environmental impact of batteries is not a single story. It depends on the chemistry, where the materials are mined and refined, and what the battery replaces. Mining cobalt and lithium causes real harm to people and places. Yet life-cycle studies show that an electric car in Europe still produces far less greenhouse gas over its life than a comparable petrol car, battery included. And while the EU now has binding recycling law, the UK is still working under rules written in 2009.
This article sets out the evidence on mining, carbon, recycling and newer chemistries such as sodium-ion.
How it works: from mine to recycling plant
The most common lithium-ion batteries rely on lithium, and many also use cobalt, nickel and graphite. Not all batteries are the same, though. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells contain no cobalt or nickel. That matters for supply-chain ethics and for recycling. The UK Government Office for Science has noted a forecast from the Advanced Propulsion Centre that about 25% of European car batteries would be LFP by 2030.
Cobalt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Cobalt supply is highly concentrated. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) produced about 70% of the world’s cobalt in the year before it suspended exports, according to Reuters reporting. The DRC halted cobalt exports in February 2025 after prices fell to a nine-year low. It then replaced the ban with annual export quotas from 16 October 2025: 18,125 tonnes for the rest of 2025 and 96,600 tonnes a year in 2026 and 2027, with 10% reserved for “strategic” national projects.
The human cost has been documented for years. Amnesty International’s January 2016 report “This is what we die for” found children working in artisanal cobalt mines in the south of the country, and traced cobalt from the area through a subsidiary of Huayou Cobalt into electronics supply chains. Artisanal mining is still a significant part of DRC output, which makes it hard to trace where cobalt in a given battery came from.
Lithium: brine and rock
Lithium is extracted either from hard rock or from underground brines. A 2018 study in Science of the Total Environment by Flexer and colleagues reported that about two-thirds of world lithium then came from brines, and that the brine method evaporates roughly half a million litres of brine for each tonne of lithium carbonate produced. The authors described the process as slow and chemical-intensive, producing large volumes of waste, with impacts that depend on local geology and climate.
Brine is mostly salty groundwater, not drinking water. The dispute over lithium in Chile’s Atacama region is about the effect of pumping on aquifers and on local communities, not a straight swap of fresh water for lithium.
Demand is rising fast. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says global lithium demand grew by nearly 30% in 2024, compared with about 10% a year in the 2010s, and that the energy sector accounted for 85% of demand growth for lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. Refining is concentrated too: the IEA finds China is the leading refiner for 19 of 20 strategic minerals, with an average share of about 70%.
Lithium from Cornwall
The UK has made a small start on domestic supply. In February 2026, Geothermal Engineering Ltd began producing lithium carbonate at United Downs in Cornwall, at about 100 tonnes a year, alongside the UK’s first deep geothermal electricity. It is a pilot-scale start, not a sign that the UK can supply its own battery industry.
What the numbers say: carbon over a car’s life
Making a battery adds emissions up front, so a new electric car starts life with a bigger carbon footprint than a petrol car. That gap is paid back through lower emissions from driving.
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has measured this in two studies. Its 2021 global comparison found that lifetime emissions of average medium-size battery electric cars registered that year were lower than comparable petrol cars by 66–69% in Europe, 60–68% in the United States, 37–45% in China and 19–34% in India.
The ICCT’s July 2025 update for Europe put the gap at 73% for battery electric cars sold today. It found that manufacturing emissions for a battery electric car are roughly 40% higher than for a petrol car, but that this “emissions debt” is typically paid off after around 17,000 km of driving, usually within the first one to two years in Europe.
The regional spread in the 2021 figures has a clear cause: the cleaner the electricity used to make and charge the battery, the bigger the advantage. The ICCT attributes much of the improvement since 2021 to the growth of renewable electricity in Europe.
Recycling: what the EU now requires
The EU Batteries Regulation, (EU) 2023/1542, was adopted on 12 July 2023. It turns recycling from an aspiration into a legal requirement.
From 18 August 2031, EV, industrial and starting, lighting and ignition (SLI) batteries must contain minimum shares of recycled material: 16% cobalt, 6% lithium, 6% nickel and 85% lead. The cobalt and lithium shares rise in 2036, to 26% and 12%.
Recyclers must also recover set shares of materials from waste batteries. For lithium, the targets are 50% by the end of 2027 and 80% by the end of 2031. The overall recycling efficiency target for lithium-based batteries is 65% by 2025.
The regulation also requires carbon footprint declarations for EV batteries and introduces a digital battery passport, accessed by QR code, from 18 February 2027. The passport covers EV batteries, industrial batteries over 2 kWh and batteries for light means of transport such as e-bikes.
The UK’s current position
The EU regulation does not apply in Great Britain. Batteries made in the UK and sold into the EU, including those in exported cars, must meet its rules, but domestic UK rules are different.
Great Britain still operates under the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009. These place producer responsibility on companies that put batteries on the market. EV traction batteries count as “industrial batteries”, producers must take back waste industrial batteries free of charge in set circumstances, and sending EV batteries to landfill or incineration is banned.
Reform is overdue. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) planned a batteries consultation for 2024, and Northern Ireland’s environment department says UK-wide proposals are being explored. As of October 2026, no reformed regulations had been published.
The state of recycling technology is a further problem. A 2022 government roundtable chaired by Sir Patrick Vallance noted that:
- current pyrometallurgical (high-temperature) recycling recovers less than 50% of a battery pack by mass
- shredding is the only method that works at scale
- manual dismantling of packs is hazardous
- regulation does not yet encourage the refining of “black mass”, the shredded material that holds the valuable metals, in the UK
The same note cited an Advanced Propulsion Centre forecast that recycled material could supply the cathodes for 60 GWh of new batteries by 2040.
Limitations / honest assessment
Batteries do real damage at the mining end, and the supply chain is concentrated in a few countries. The DRC dominates cobalt, and China dominates refining. That is both an ethical problem and a supply risk.
The carbon advantage of electric cars is real but not fixed. It depends on how the electricity used to make and charge the battery is generated, which is why the ICCT’s figures for India and China are much lower than for Europe.
Recycling is not yet a closed loop. The UK’s recovery rates are under 50% by mass with current methods, and the EU’s recycled-content rules do not start until 2031. Claims that batteries are almost entirely recyclable should be treated with caution unless they name the process and the recovery rate.
Chemistry choices involve trade-offs. LFP avoids cobalt and nickel, and sodium-ion avoids lithium too, but no single chemistry suits every use.
The UK angle: storage beyond cars
Batteries are not only about cars. Grid-scale storage helps balance wind and solar power, and lithium-ion is only one option. Our guides to pumped storage hydropower and gravity energy storage cover technologies that store energy without battery minerals, and our explainer on smart grids and microgrids shows how storage fits into a more flexible electricity system.
For the UK, the near-term questions are whether recycling rules are updated to match the scale of EV adoption, and whether domestic sources such as Cornish lithium can grow beyond pilot scale.
Sodium-ion: a lower-impact alternative?
Sodium-ion batteries avoid lithium, cobalt and nickel. The IEA says sodium-ion and manganese-rich chemistries are gaining traction. But China still dominates their supply chains, including cells, cathodes and hard-carbon anodes, and supplies 95% of the world’s high-purity manganese sulphate.
The Chinese battery maker CATL launched its Naxtra sodium-ion brand in April 2025, saying its cells reach an energy density of up to 175 Wh/kg, close to LFP. In February 2026, CATL and carmaker Changan unveiled what they describe as the first mass-produced sodium-ion passenger car, with a 45 kWh battery and a range of over 400 km, due to launch in mid-2026. CATL also says its sodium-ion cells keep more than 90% of their capacity at −40 °C. These are company figures.
In our view, sodium-ion’s lower energy density makes it a better fit for city cars and stationary storage than for long-range cars. It is likely to complement lithium-ion rather than replace it.
Frequently asked questions
Does the EU battery law apply in the UK?
No. The EU Batteries Regulation applies to batteries placed on the EU market. UK-made batteries and cars sold into the EU must comply, but Great Britain’s own rules are still the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009.
Are all lithium batteries the same?
No. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries contain no cobalt or nickel. Other lithium-ion chemistries, such as nickel manganese cobalt (NMC), do contain them.
How much water does lithium mining use?
A 2018 study reported that brine extraction evaporates roughly half a million litres of brine per tonne of lithium carbonate. Brine is mostly salty groundwater rather than drinking water, but pumping it can affect local aquifers and communities, as the dispute in Chile’s Atacama shows.
Can batteries be fully recycled?
Not with today’s common methods. In the UK, current pyrometallurgical recycling recovers less than 50% of a pack by mass. EU law requires 50% of the lithium in waste batteries to be recovered by the end of 2027 and 80% by the end of 2031.
Is cobalt mining still a human rights issue?
Yes. The DRC produces most of the world’s cobalt, about 70% in the year before its 2025 export ban, according to reports. Amnesty International documented child labour in artisanal mines in 2016, and the mix of industrial and artisanal output still makes cobalt hard to trace.
What is the carbon footprint of an EV compared with a petrol car?
Higher at the factory gate, much lower over its life. The ICCT’s 2025 study found that a battery electric car sold in Europe today produces 73% less greenhouse gas over its lifetime than a petrol car, with the extra emissions from manufacturing typically paid back after around 17,000 km.