In-depth observation: How to better promote the green and low-carbon development of Sichuan's power battery industry chain?

Sichuan Province is rich in clean energy resources, and hydropower installed capacity and power generation are among the top in the country. At the same time, lithium ore resources are abundant, the power battery industry chain is complete, and production capacity advantages are outstanding. The country's largest lithium iron phosphate battery material production base has been built in Suining, and the world-class power battery industry base is accelerated in Yibin. Power battery output accounts for the country's total output. 1/6 of the output has the basic conditions for green, low-carbon and high-quality development of the power battery industry chain.

However, at present, judging from all aspects of the entire power battery industry chain, there are still some difficulties and challenges. First, the overseas dependence of lithium mineral resources reaches more than 70%, which may easily affect the stability and safety of the entire supply chain, and overseas transportation will bring higher carbon emissions. Second, the upstream links of the industrial chain such as basic lithium salts and lithium battery anodes and anode materials consume large amounts of energy, pollutants and carbon emissions, and the green and low-carbon characteristics are not obvious. Third, the back-end new energy vehicle industry is not extended enough, and the production, promotion and application of new energy vehicles lag behind the development of the power battery industry. Fourth, international policies such as the "EU Battery and Waste Battery Regulations" and the net-zero emission target requirements of leading new energy vehicle companies put forward higher requirements on the carbon footprint of the entire industrial chain and the recycling system of used power batteries, which is far from building a national and even global competitiveness. There is still a big gap in the low-carbon industrial chain.

In order to give full play to Sichuan's clean energy advantages, promote pollution and carbon reduction in the middle and upper reaches of the industrial chain, actively respond to the challenges of international green trade barriers, and improve the gold content and green content of the industrial chain, the author puts forward the following suggestions:

Strengthen the supply chain at the end and end to increase the gold content of the industrial chain. Build a lithium resource guarantee system from three dimensions: overseas, outside the province, and within the province, support qualified leading enterprises in the province to form overseas lithium battery industry alliances, enhance their ability to safely and efficiently utilize overseas mineral resources, actively participate in the development of lithium and lithium mica in salt lakes outside the province, broaden channels for the development and utilization of lithium resources, continue to explore lithium, manganese, nickel, cobalt, graphite and other mineral resources in the province, and support the development of enclave parks such as Ganyi, Ganmei, Chenggan, and Chenga. Form a development pattern of "mining within the state and intensive processing outside the state". Lay out and improve the power battery recycling industry, create an efficient recycling system and model, encourage vehicle manufacturing enterprises, battery production enterprises, cascade utilization and recycling enterprises to jointly build a recycling cooperation model, and jointly create a "production-use-recycling-cascade utilization" power battery recycling industry chain, accelerate the research and development of technologies such as waste power battery testing and residual value assessment, explore the establishment of incentive and constraint mechanisms, and pilot a "deposit system" for battery recycling.

Implement pollution reduction and carbon reduction to increase the green content of the industrial chain. Strictly implement policy requirements such as the implementation rules for the negative list for the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, select locations for mineral processing plants and tailings ponds, guide joint reorganization of mines, and strengthen supporting infrastructure construction. Promote the construction of green mines, do a good job in ecological protection and restoration of the entire process of lithium ore mining, and promptly carry out ecological restoration of goaf areas, damaged land, and idle land in accordance with the ecological functional zoning of the mine. Coordinate and promote energy conservation, pollution reduction, and carbon reduction in industrial production processes, promote low-nitrogen combustion transformation of furnaces, implement waste heat recycling, improve energy utilization efficiency, reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, build a reclaimed water recycling and treatment system, and strengthen temporary lithium slag Storage facility management, study the feasibility of lithium slag used in concrete admixtures, building ceramic raw materials, etc., expand lithium slag consumption channels and improve consumption capabilities. Eliminate backward and inefficient equipment, and newly built enterprises should adopt high-tech, high-efficiency and high-reliability equipment. Focus on energy consumption monitoring and carbon emission data management, establish a smart energy management platform to achieve smart energy monitoring and refined carbon emission management.

Improve the policy guarantee system and promote the sustainable development of the industrial chain. Build an industrial green and low-carbon access mechanism, benchmark international and domestic advanced levels, strengthen the leading role of standards, study and formulate performance standards for energy efficiency, carbon evaluation, and pollutant emission of lithium battery power battery projects, and increase energy efficiency based on the existing ecological environment access list. and carbon emission related requirements. Give full play to Sichuan's advantages in clean energy resources, promote the further improvement of green electricity price support policies, strengthen the coordination of electricity price policies and energy conservation and emission reduction policies, and use blockchain and other technologies to explore green electricity traceability mechanisms. Establish and improve the power battery carbon footprint management system, connect with the national product carbon footprint accounting principles and standards, explore advantageous fields such as lithium batteries and power batteries, and actively apply for industry standards, national standards and international standards. Promote the construction of a public service platform for carbon footprint of products in Sichuan Province to provide technical support for carbon footprint accounting and management of power batteries and other industries in the province. Support power battery export enterprises to do a good job in carbon footprint accounting, declaration, certification, disclosure, etc., and encourage leading enterprises to carry out low-carbon supply chain pilots. Focus on key production links such as basic lithium salts and used power batteries, develop green and low-carbon process technologies, and promote the formation of a number of collaborative management processes and technologies for reducing pollution and carbon in the lithium battery and power battery industries.

Author's unit: Zhou Xin, Sichuan Province Environmental Policy Research and Planning Institute; Jiang Xiaoqian and Pei Haigang, World Resources Institute