The Lead REACH Consortium has signed a co-operation deal with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), designed to speed up and improve the information available on registered substances and allow regulators to make faster, better-informed decisions.
The agreement comes as the lead industry waits to see whether four chemical compounds that are irreplaceable in the production of lead batteries will be banned, effectively spelling the end for the technology in the region.Lead batteries are currently responsible for more than three quarters of existing rechargeable energy storage worldwide. Other battery technologies such as lithium and cobalt, which also contain chemicals in the production process, have positioned themselves at the center of plans to decarbonize the economy and power electrification. If a ban on compounds irreplaceable in the production of lead batteries does come into effect,...