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Europe is trying to build up a local battery-manufacturing industry to reduce dependency on Asian suppliers. Electric vehicles have become a focal point in the region, with governments bolstering subsidies to help carmakers recover from the pandemic and comply with stricter emissions standards.

While fully-electric cars drive emissions-free, the production of batteries has been criticized for its carbon footprint. Mining lithium from rocks is energy-intensive and extracting it from dried lake beds, as is often done in South America, drains local water reserves.

A process developed by an Australian firm is more environmentally friendly because its feedstock — hot salar brine — provides not only lithium but also heat to generate renewable energy, reducing the method’s overall carbon footprint.

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-15/miner-gets-closer-to-producing-green-lithium-for-ev-batteries