The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF Product Environmental Footprint) is the EU's official Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) standard and certification system, and includes carbon footprint accounting and carbon labeling certification systems. The PEF guidelines are jointly developed by the European Union Research Agency and the European Union Environment Agency, and have organized a number of industries to develop PEFCR rules for dozens of products (PEF Category Rules).
The importance of PEF's carbon footprint lies in:
from the perspective of method system, PEF is the most systematic and detailed carbon footprint/LCA method system in the world, and the requirements of PEF are much higher than those of other carbon footprint/LCA standards and certification systems in the world. Therefore, systematically learning and mastering PEF reflects the professional level of carbon footprint/LCA practitioners and is a compulsory course for entering the professional field of carbon footprint/LCA.
From the perspective of application, PEF is mandatory for many EU regulations the only product carbon footprint/carbon label/LCA system adopted, so it is adopted by more and more brands and their supply chains, and is likely to penetrate into the global industrial chain like the EU RoHS and REACH directives. Therefore, PEF is the most practical and worthwhile method system to learn.
More importantly, as soon as 2024, the export of electric vehicle batteries, industrial batteries, and even photovoltaics to the EU must provide PEF-compliant carbon footprint certification. This is a new trade barrier and will even affect industrial safety (PEF also involves leather textiles, food and beverages, electronics, packaging and other export products), but the current domestic understanding and preparation of PEF is almost zero!
Imminent challenge: Carbon footprint is becoming the new trade barrier
europe is the world's largest new energy vehicle market, and batteries are the most important components of electric vehicles. Both are strategic emerging industries that the EU is fully developing. The EU's battery and electric vehicle industries are lagging behind China, but the EU is developing new battery regulations that mandate battery carbon footprint certification in accordance with PEF specifications, becoming a new trade barrier.
The latest progress: in March 2022, the draft EU regulations on batteries and waste batteries were voted by the European Parliament and the European Council respectively, and are expected to be officially promulgated in the second half of 2022. The latest draft puts forward three mandatory requirements and implementation time, the fastest in 2024 will be required to provide PEF-compliant battery carbon footprint report, and must be certified by a third party audit. Battery products that do not meet the relevant requirements will be banned access to the EU market.
China has a leading edge in battery technology, manufacturing and industrial chain, and the global share of lithium batteries for electric vehicles is about 60%. Although domestic companies have begun to pay attention to PEF, it is left to Chinese companies to learn, investigate, complete qualified PEF carbon footprint reports, and complete EU certification. Time is running out! And, presumably from the motives of EU battery legislation, difficulty will not be small.
The EU battery regulation is to pass PEF carbon footprint certification and give full play to the EU's low-carbon power advantages, thus protecting the development of the EU battery industry (battery and raw material production is a high power consumption process, the proportion of thermal power in some parts of the EU is less than 30%, while the average proportion of thermal power in China is about 70%, there is a significant gap).
The fastest in 2024 you will see:
all battery manufacturers who want to export to the EU must submit product and production process data to the EU;
any battery carbon footprint report and power carbon footprint data that do not meet the requirements of PEF cannot be recognized by the EU, and Chinese battery products are likely to be blocked out of the EU market, or can only invest and build factories in Europe;
china's electric vehicle exports may have to turn to the procurement of locally produced batteries in Europe. European electric vehicles will gain greater advantages, and even do not rule out the EU's requirement for electric vehicles to provide PEF carbon footprint certification......
In either case, it will seriously affect the export of Chinese products and even affect industrial safety!
It is for this reason that Ningde era proposed the "two sessions" in 2022. Proposal on Accelerating the Study of China's Battery Carbon Footprint and Establishing a China-EU Mutual Recognition Mechanism contains very specific and urgent recommendations:
(1) It is suggested to speed up the research on the methodology of carbon footprint of batteries in China, and establish a cooperation and exchange mechanism with the European Union to promote the coordination and mutual recognition of the methodology of carbon footprint of battery products between China and Europe.
(2) It is recommended that the relevant departments update and release China's power carbon emission factors on an annual and sub-regional basis, update them in a timely manner and inform the international community.
(Note: The "power carbon emission factor" in the proposal actually refers to the "power carbon footprint". Domestic government departments have issued various power carbon emission factors under the CDM/CCER method system and the carbon trading method system, but those are not the power carbon footprint under the LCA/PEF method system.)
not only electric vehicle batteries, industrial batteries, but also other products may require carbon footprint and PEF certification. For example, in recent years, France, South Korea, Sweden and other countries have put forward the requirements of product carbon footprint when purchasing photovoltaic products. At present, Europe is brewing a radical energy independence plan, at all costs to vigorously develop the local photovoltaic industry. The EU is pushing ahead with photovoltaic modules, inverters and systems the eco-design and energy labeling requirements, which also include carbon footprint.
In addition, PEF also contains PEFCR product specifications for textile leather, food and beverage, electronics, packaging, etc., which may be adopted by other EU policies or brands and their supply chains, affecting more export products. For example, in the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism CBAM (Carbon Tariff) Act, it is proposed to calculate the PEF carbon footprint of products based on electricity data from producing countries for imported products from non-controlled emission industries. The EU also plans to establish a product carbon emission reduction certification system based on the PEF carbon footprint. (EU documents can be downloaded at the end of the article "read the original text")
Positive significance of PEF carbon footprint: corrected shoddy carbon footprint/LCA reporting
the EU Regulation on Batteries and Waste Batteries dares to force carbon footprint certification according to PEF (carbon footprint reports based on ISO or other standards will not be accepted), because the EU Research Agency and the EU Environment Agency have spent more than ten years to formulate the most systematic and detailed method system in the world, such as clear requirements for production process data, background database, recycling cycle, report quality score, etc, this provides technical support and confidence for the formulation and implementation of EU regulations.
Moreover, PEF has greatly improved the ISO standard of carbon footprint/LCA, corrected the common problems in the shoddy carbon footprint/LCA report, and provided a standardized, credible and even comparable method basis for various applications such as carbon label certification, product ecological design, low-carbon technology evaluation, green supply chain management, etc.
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