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The International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop digital infrastructure and to streamline battery certification, a move that has early support from major industry market participants including Panasonic and BASF. The agreement, formalized on Thursday September 25 during the Climate Week NYC 2025 event, also makes ITC an official member of the GBA under an EU-funded project intended to enhance transparency and traceability in strategic value chains.
The partnership announcement coincided with the launch of GBA’s Battery Benchmarks, a new framework designed to assess batteries against globally defined sustainability standards. These benchmarks will form the foundation for certifications under GBA’s Battery Passport initiative.
The Battery Passport program is now entering its prototyping phase, with the final product expected by 2027, to align with EU battery passport requirements, according to GBA executive director Inga Petersen.
“The EU battery regulation has been a big driver of interest because companies must do it, but the entry points are very apparent in other regions as well,” Petersen told Fastmarkets at the event.
The upcoming EU requirements for battery passports represent the “stick” while certification offers the “carrot,” Petersen said.
While sustainability requirements were the main driver in Europe, in other regions such as North America the focus was on transparency, particularly for battery recycling content, which also carries economic value.
GBA was also working to determine how certification should apply across the value chain for electric vehicle (EV) and storage batteries, whether at the cell, module, rack or container level.
“There’s different views on what is the functional unit to be certified, so that piece is under exploration right now, especially with the cell manufacturers,” Petersen said.
In terms of electrical storage system (ESS) demand, automotive OEMs have historically faced more consumer scrutiny than power companies, which has positioned them at the forefront of driving this initiative, according to Petersen.
As a result of regulatory requirements, stationary storage providers were now realizing that they also must be prepared to meet investor requirements for public funding, she said.
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Industry reactions were supportive during a subsequent panel at the event.
Panasonic, which produces batteries for passenger, commercial and autonomous EVs, joined GBA in 2024 and has already contributed to the Battery Passport program, piloting track-and-trace tools with key customers, according to senior vice president of strategy Janet Lin.
She called for clearer guidance on onboarding suppliers and customers, noting the “significant” capital and human resources required.
Lydie Derebreu, BASF’s senior vice president of strategy development for battery materials and recycling, highlighted four areas of concern for potential corporate members: ensuring data confidentiality, leveraging existing standards to ease implementation, helping companies show improvement over time, and aligning adoption with customer incentives.
Both executives emphasized the benefits of the initiative.
Lin cited three main advantages: comparability across battery products, credibility for environmentally responsible offerings and efficiency in compliance and reporting.
Derebreu added that the program “sets the bar higher” for the entire battery value chain and catalyzes innovation by encouraging companies to improve sustainability performance.
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