Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations (EU) No 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1724 and (EU) 2019/1020 (Text with EEA relevance)

(a) the quality of the feasibility studies carried out on the potential of development of the project;

(b) whether the technology intended to be used has been demonstrated in the relevant environment.

4.The feasibility studies referred to in point 3(a) shall be designed to:

(a) assess whether a proposed project is likely to be successful by analysing technological and environmental considerations;

(b) identify potential technical issues and problems that could arise while pursuing the project.

Further studies may be required to confirm the feasibility of the project.

5.The assessment of whether projects located in the Union fulfil the criterion laid down in Article 6(1), point (c) shall take into account an overall assessment of a project’s compliance with relevant Union or national law as well as relevant supplementary evidence, taking into account the location of the project.

The assessment of whether projects in third countries or in OCTs fulfil the criterion laid down in Article 6(1), point (c) shall take into account compliance with the applicable national law where that national law provides sufficient assurance of compliance with the criterion or aspects of it and with the following international instruments:

(a) ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy;

(b) OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, in particular the guidelines related to combatting corruption;

(c) OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas;

(d) OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in the Extractive Sector, including where referring to the principles set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

(e) OECD Principles of Corporate Governance;

(f) OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct;

(g) UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;

(h) IFC Performance Standard 5 on Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement.

6.Project promoters may also attest compliance with the criterion laid down in Article 6(1), point (c) by:

(a) providing evidence that the project concerned is individually certified by one or more schemes recognised pursuant to Article 30(2) that jointly cover the requirements listed in Annex IV, point (2); or

(b) committing to obtain certification for the project concerned as part of by one or more schemes recognised pursuant to Article 30(2) that jointly cover the requirements listed in Annex IV, point (2), and providing sufficient evidence that when implemented the project concerned will be able to meet the criteria for such certification.

7.The assessment of whether a project in the Union fulfils the criterion laid down in Article 6(1), point (d) shall take into account:

(a) whether undertakings from different Member States participate in the project;

(b) whether potential offtakers are located also in more than one Member State;

(c) effects on the availability of strategic raw materials for downstream users in more than one Member State.

8.The assessment of whether a project in a third country fulfils the criterion laid down in Article 6(1), point (e) shall take into account the extent to which the project contributes, in the relevant third country:

(a) to strengthening more than one stage of the raw materials value chain in that country or its wider region;

(b) to fostering private investment in the domestic raw materials value chain;

(c) to the creation of wider economic or social benefits, including the creation of employment.

ANNEX IV

1.A recognised certification scheme shall meet the following criteria:

(a) it is open under transparent, fair and non-discriminatory terms to all economic operators willing and able to comply with the scheme’s requirements and subject to multi-stakeholder governance;

(b) verification and monitoring of compliance is objective, based on international, Union or national standards, requirements and procedures and carried out independently from the relevant economic operator;

(c) it includes sufficient requirements and procedures to ensure the competence and independence of the verifiers responsible;

(d) it includes requirements to ensure an audit-report established at the site level.

2.The requirements for certification shall include at least:

(a) requirements ensuring environmentally sustainable practices, including requirements ensuring environmental management and impact mitigation in the following environmental risk categories: (i) air, including air pollution such as greenhouse gas emissions; (ii) water, including seabed and marine environment, and water pollution, water use, water quantities, taking into account flooding or droughts, and access to water; (iii) soil, including soil pollution, soil erosion, land use and land degradation; (iv) biodiversity, including damage to habitats, wildlife, flora and ecosystems, including ecosystem services; (v) hazardous substances; (vi) noise and vibration; (vii) plant safety; (viii) energy use; (ix) waste and residues;

(b) requirements for ensuring socially responsible practices, including respect for human rights and labour rights including the community life of indigenous peoples;

(c) requirements for ensuring business integrity and transparency including requirements to apply sound management of financial, environmental and social matters and anti-corruption and anti-bribery policies.

ANNEX V

Part I

Definitions

For the purposes of this Annex, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) ‘activity data’ means the information associated with processes while modelling Life-Cycle Inventories (LCI), whereby the aggregated LCI results of the process chains that represent the activities of a process are each multiplied by the corresponding activity data and then combined to derive the environmental footprint associated with that process;

(b) ‘bill of materials’ means list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, parts and the quantities of each needed to manufacture the product in scope of the study;

(c) ‘company-specific data’ or ‘primary data’ means directly measured or collated data from one or multiple facilities (site-specific data) that are representative for the activities of the company;

(d) ‘impact assessment method’ means the protocol for quantitative translation of life-cycle inventory data into contributions to an environmental impact of concern;

(e) ‘impact category’ means a class of resource use or environmental impact to which the life-cycle inventory data are related;

(f) ‘life cycle’ means the consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system, from raw material acquisition or generation from natural resources to final disposal (ISO 14040:2006);

(g) ‘life-cycle inventory’ or ‘LCI’ means the combined set of exchanges of elementary, waste and product flows in a LCI dataset;

(h) ‘life-cycle inventory dataset’ or ‘LCI dataset’ means a document or file with life-cycle information of a specified product or other reference, such as the site or the process, covering descriptive metadata and quantitative life-cycle inventory and can be a unit process dataset, partially aggregated or an aggregated dataset;

(i) ‘secondary data’ means data not from a specific process within the supply-chain of the company performing an environmental footprint study, namely data that is not directly collated, measured, or estimated by the company, but sourced from a third party LCI database or other sources, including industry average data — such as from published production data, government statistics, and industry associations — literature studies, engineering studies and patents, and may also be based on financial data, and contain proxy data, and other generic data and including primary data that go through a horizontal aggregation step;

(j) ‘system boundary’ means the aspects included or excluded from the life-cycle study.

The calculation rules for the environmental footprint of a critical raw material shall include any further definition necessary for their interpretation.

Part II

Scope

This Annex provides essential elements on how to calculate the environmental footprint of critical raw materials.

The calculation rules for the environmental footprint of specific critical raw materials shall build on the essential elements included in this Annex, taking into account scientifically sound assessment methods and relevant international standards in the area of life-cycle assessment.

The calculation of the environmental footprint of a critical raw material shall be based on the bill of material, the energy, production methods, and auxiliary materials used at the facilities involved on the production of critical raw material.

When establishing calculation rules for the environmental footprint of specific critical raw materials, the Commission shall aim to ensure consistency with calculation rules for the environmental footprint of intermediate and final products making use of the relevant critical raw materials.

Part III

Declared unit

The declared unit shall be 1 kg of the relevant critical raw material type.

The calculation rules for the environmental footprint of specific critical raw materials may specify a higher of lower declared unit, expressed in kg, where necessary to take into account the nature or use of the relevant critical raw material.

All quantitative input and output data collated by the manufacturer to quantify the carbon footprint shall be calculated in relation to this declared unit.

Part IV

System boundary

1.Extraction, concentration and refining are the three life-cycle stages to be included in the system boundary of primary critical raw materials with the following processes, when relevant to the specific raw material:

(a) upstream processes including the extraction of ore for raw material production, production and supply, including transport, of chemicals, auxiliary processes, production and supply, including transport, of fuels, production and supply of electricity, and transport of materials in vehicles not owned or operated by the organisation;

(b) transport of ore, concentrates and raw materials in vehicles owned or operated by the organisation;

(c) storage of ore, concentrates and raw materials;

(d) ore crushing and cleaning;

(e) raw material concentrate production;

(f) metal extraction, by chemical, physical or biological means;

(g) smelting;

(h) metal conversion;

(i) slag cleaning;

(j) metal refining;

(k) metal electrolysis;

(l) metal casting or packaging;

(m) spent material and slag treatment;

(n) all related auxiliary processes, such as for on-site waste-water treatment, including for process water treatment, direct cooling and surface runoff water; gas abatement systems, including for primary and secondary off gases; boilers, including for the pre-treatment of feed water; internal logistics.

2.In the system boundary of secondary critical raw materials, defining the recycling life-cycle stage, the following processes, when relevant to the specific recycled raw material, shall be included:

(a) upstream processes including the generation of raw feed material (scrap materials and virgin concentrates), the production and supply (transport) of chemicals, auxiliary processes, production and supply (transport) of fuels, the production and supply of electricity, and the transport of materials in vehicles not owned by the organisation;

(b) transport of concentrates and scraps in vehicles owned or operated by the organisation;

(c) storage of scraps, concentrates and raw materials;

(d) secondary raw material pre-treatment;

(e) smelting;

(f) metal conversion;

(g) metal refining;

(h) metal electrolysis;

(i) metal casting or packaging;

(j) spent material treatment;

(k) all related auxiliary processes, such as for on-site waste-water treatment, including for process water treatment, direct cooling and surface runoff water; gas abatement systems, including for primary and secondary off gases; boilers, including for the pre-treatment of feed water; and internal logistics.

3.The use phase or end-of-life phase shall be excluded from the environmental footprint calculations, as it is not under the direct influence of the economic operator responsible. Other processes may be excluded where their contribution to the environmental footprint of a specific critical raw material is insignificant.

Part V

Impact categories

The calculation rules shall specify the impact categories that need to be included in the environmental footprint calculation. The choice shall be based on the hotspot analysis carried out in line with scientifically sound methodologies developed at international level and taking into account the:

(a) relative importance of different impacts, including their relative importance for meeting Union climate and environmental objectives;

(b) needs of downstream undertakings wishing to communicate on the environmental footprint of the critical raw materials they use.

Part VI

Use of company-specific and secondary datasets

The calculation rules shall specify the use of company specific or secondary datasets for all relevant processes and materials. If calculation rules allow for the choice between a company specific dataset and a secondary dataset, the Commission shall consider incentivising the use the company specific dataset.

The use of company-specific data shall be required at least for the processes under the direct influence of the operator responsible and have the largest contribution to the relevant impact categories.

The company specific activity data shall be used in combination with the relevant environmental footprint compliant secondary datasets. The calculation rules shall specify whether sampling is allowed, in line with the criteria set out in scientifically sound methodologies developed at international level.

A change in the bill of materials or energy mix used to produce a critical raw material type requires a new calculation of the environmental footprint.

When setting calculation rules, including for the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the electricity used for the production of critical raw materials, the Commission shall ensure consistency and alignment with other relevant Union law, unless it is justified not to do so.

The calculation rules to be elaborated via a delegated act shall include detailed modelling of the following lifecycle stages:

(a) primary raw material extraction, concentration and refining stage;

(b) secondary raw material acquisition and processing stage.

Part VII

Impact assessment methods

The environmental footprint shall be calculated using scientifically sound impact assessment methods which take into account developments on the international level for relevant impact categories related to climate change, water, air, soil, resources, land use and toxicity.

The results shall be provided as characterised results, without normalisation and weighting.

Part VIII

Environmental footprint performance classes

Depending on the distribution of the values of the environmental footprint declarations placed on the internal market, a meaningful number of classes of performance shall be identified, with category A being the best class with the lowest life-cycle impact, to allow for market differentiation. The identification of the threshold for each class of performance, as well as their width, shall be based on the distribution of performances of the relevant critical raw materials placed on the market in the previous three years, the expected technological improvements, and other technical factors to be identified.

The Commission shall review the number of performance classes and the thresholds between them every three years in order to keep them representative of the market reality and its expected development.

Part IX

Conformity assessment

The calculation and verification rules shall specify the applicable conformity assessment procedure from among the modules set out in Annex II to Decision No 768/2008/EC, with the adaptations necessary in view of the material concerned.

When specifying the applicable conformity assessment procedure, the Commission shall consider the following criteria:

(a) whether the module concerned is appropriate to the type of material and proportionate to the public interest pursued;

(b) the nature of the risks entailed by the product and the extent to which conformity assessment corresponds to the type and degree of risk;

(c) where third party involvement is mandatory, the need for the manufacturer to have a choice between quality assurance and product certification modules set out in Annex II to Decision No 768/2008/EC.