The EU Battery Regulation, Policy Space and Global Value Chain Formation in Southern Africa

This project aims to build knowledge regarding how the new EU Battery Regulation (EUBR) will create challenges and/or opportunities relating to policy space and extractive governance in the project countries. The EUBR is a comprehensive effort to regulate the sustainability of batteries manufactured, sold or used in the EU. It includes due diligence provisions designed to govern the ethical sourcing and extraction of four raw materials: cobalt, natural graphite, lithium, and nickel. While the regulatory framework is enacted, key arrangements and processes of the due diligence regime are being put into place for when it comes into force in August 2025. Through these provisions, the EUBR will have far reaching impacts on the extraction and sourcing of key minerals for global battery supply chains.

This project explores three interrelated research questions concerning the EUBR. These are: (1) How will the EU Battery Regulation influence national policy space in the project countries? (2) How will the EU Battery Regulation shape supply chains toward or away from Southern African countries? and (3) What opportunities for redress and policy influence do
the Regulation’s participatory mechanisms, particularly its grievance mechanisms, offer stakeholders in the project countries?

This proposal is the first part of what is intended to be a two-part project. It will involve research to determine the developing features of the due diligence regime of the EU Battery Regulation and how various actors are implementing their responsibilities the Regulation imposes on them. Once this initial research is complete, its results and findings will be used to inform and develop and a second proposal, in partnership with one of the AEGT research partners. The idea will be to carry out research in one of the project countries as a case study to examine the influence of the EUBR and its impacts on policy space and extractive governance.

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