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From Vision to Action: GECC Launches the Global Energy Circular Economy Coalition and Circular Battery Design Guidelines

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LONDON, June 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On June 22, CATL and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation announced two new initiatives together with BMW, Renault, Volvo, Google, Xiaomi and other industry leaders and stakeholders, at the Climate Innovation Forum, the flagship event of London Climate Action Week 2026, through CATL’s Global Energy Circularity Commitment (GECC), developed in strategic partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The initiatives include circular battery design guidelines to embed circularity across the full battery lifecycle, and a business coalition to accelerate the policy, investment and commercial conditions needed to make circular business models the industry norm.

By 2040, the global battery recycling market alone is projected to exceed RMB 1.2 trillion, creating more than 10 million jobs, while the International Energy Agency projects demand for battery-critical minerals will increase fivefold over the same period. Meeting that demand sustainably will require not only greater recycling capacity, but common design standards and business models that keep materials in productive use for longer.

CATL became the first battery manufacturer to achieve carbon neutrality across its core operations in 2025, certified under ISO 14068-1, with full value-chain carbon neutrality targeted by 2035. Much of the remaining challenge lies in mining and raw material processing rather than manufacturing. Circularity will play a central role in meeting future demand without proportional increases in virgin material extraction. The initiatives announced aim to help build the common frameworks needed to accelerate that transition.

Earlier the same day, at Octopus Energy’s Energy Tech Summit, CATL and Octopus Energy announced Europe’s first battery-swapping joint venture, targeting 300,000 electric trucks and 30 hubs across Europe by 2035, with the first UK hubs scheduled to open in 2027. The partnership demonstrates the type of commercially viable circular business model the coalition aims to accelerate.

Miranda Schnitger, Climate Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation: “Circular economy approaches were key to tackling the 45% of emissions that come from how we produce and consume.”

Jiang Li, Vice President and Board Secretary, CATL: “Last year we set the direction: decouple battery growth from virgin material extraction. Today, the industry is beginning to build the common rules that will help deliver it. That is not only a climate opportunity, but an industrial one.”

Greg Jackson, Founder and CEO, Octopus Energy Group: “By designing batteries to be swapped, optimised, shared and reused thousands of times, we can squeeze every drop of value out of the materials we already have, rather than digging up more. That’s why our battery-swapping joint venture with CATL matters; we are taking the world’s best hardware, combining it with smart energy tech to make it cheaper and more flexible, and building a completely self-sustaining transport network.”

Initiative I: Circular Battery Design Guidelines

The circular battery design guidelines establish a common methodology for circular battery design across a range of mobility applications. As a founding partner, CATL brings practical experience from battery manufacturing, recycling and service operations to support their development. The methodology is intended to inform procurement standards, investor frameworks and future regulatory discussions, including the evolution of European battery policy.

Developed to address fragmentation across approaches to repair, second life and recycling, the guidelines provide a shared basis for comparing circular performance across the market. They aim to help buyers evaluate products, investors assess long-term value, and policymakers reference a consistent framework.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation provides a neutral platform through which companies across the battery value chain can develop shared principles that no single organisation could establish alone. The working group is now underway, with publication planned for 2027.

Initiative II: Business Coalition for Circular Business Models

The coalition for circular business models is a policy and industry platform established to accelerate the adoption of circular business models across mobility and energy. With battery swapping already operating across more than 1,650 stations in 127 Chinese cities, the focus is shifting from demonstrating technical feasibility to creating the commercial, regulatory and financing conditions required for international scale.

CATL contributes practical experience through its battery-as-a-service and battery-swapping businesses, including the expanding Choco-Swap and QIJI networks, providing operational insights that can support wider deployment globally.

The coalition also seeks to establish common approaches for evaluating circular battery assets, including service history, degradation data and second-life value, providing investors, fleet operators and policymakers with greater confidence and reducing market uncertainty.

CATL Advances Circular Battery Systems

CATL continues to scale circularity across its operations. In 2025, Brunp Recycling processed 210,000 tonnes of end-of-life batteries, recovering 99.6% of nickel, cobalt and manganese, with 80% of recovered materials returning directly into CATL’s battery production.

Rather than treating recycling as the end of a product’s life, CATL integrates circularity into battery design, manufacturing, use and recovery as a connected system.

Furthermore, CATL is accelerating the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries, with plans to deliver its first sodium-ion energy storage systems to customers starting this September. This initiative expands the energy storage technology roadmap beyond lithium, cobalt, and nickel, enhancing material supply resilience and cost stability.

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SOURCE CATL

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Simpaisa and Tencent Cloud Collaborate on Strategic Cloud Transformation to Accelerate Infrastructure Optimization and Innovation

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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, today announced a strategic collaboration with Simpaisa, a fintech and digital payments company, to explore a large-scale cloud transformation aimed at optimizing infrastructure efficiency while supporting the operational, security and regulatory requirements of financial services applications.

Through the collaboration, Simpaisa is working with Tencent Cloud to assess a future-ready cloud environment spanning its broader fintech technology ecosystem and supporting infrastructure. The initiative is designed to support the company’s long-term objective of improving infrastructure efficiency while maintaining the resilience, governance and reliability standards essential to its operations.

Driving Infrastructure Optimization and Cloud Transformation

As Simpaisa’s business and technology footprint continues to expand, optimizing cloud infrastructure costs while maintaining the performance, reliability and security required for mission-critical fintech operations has become an increasingly important strategic priority. At the same time, the company must continue to safeguard sensitive financial and transaction data while meeting evolving operational and regulatory obligations.

To support these objectives, Simpaisa is working with Tencent Cloud to validate a target cloud architecture that can support its evolving operational and technology requirements. Leveraging Tencent Cloud’s financial-grade infrastructure, integrated security capabilities, and technical expertise, the collaboration enables Simpaisa to assess a modern operating model designed to support future growth, operational resilience, and long-term innovation.

As part of the collaboration, Tencent Cloud is providing cloud infrastructure expertise, migration support, and architectural guidance to help validate the proposed target environment. The assessment spans compute workloads, Kubernetes-based applications, databases, messaging infrastructure, monitoring services, and security capabilities, including a proposed environment of more than 50 compute instances, over 50 Kubernetes pods, and multiple database technologies supporting Simpaisa’s broader fintech platform.

The initiative also evaluates cloud-native security controls, enabling Simpaisa to assess security, compliance, and operational requirements alongside technical and business objectives. This approach helps ensure infrastructure optimization goals can be pursued without compromising security posture or regulatory obligations.

Rachel Xie, General Manager of Tencent Cloud MENA, Operations, Channel Development and Marketing of Tencent Cloud International, said: “As digital payments and financial services continue to evolve, fintech companies are increasingly looking for technology platforms that can support growth, operational efficiency, security, and regulatory obligations simultaneously. We are pleased to collaborate with Simpaisa as it explores its cloud transformation journey. By leveraging Tencent Cloud’s infrastructure capabilities, financial-grade technology foundation and security expertise, we look forward to supporting Simpaisa in building a scalable and resilient technology environment that can support innovation and long-term growth in the digital financial services sector.”

Saqlain Raza, Chief Technology Officer of Simpaisa, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with Tencent Cloud on this strategic cloud transformation initiative. Tencent Cloud’s financial-grade technology foundation, cloud infrastructure capabilities and security expertise provide us with a strong platform to evaluate new opportunities for infrastructure optimization, modernization and innovation. Through this collaboration, we look forward to strengthening our technology foundation and supporting the continued growth of our fintech business.”

Beyond supporting Simpaisa’s cloud transformation journey, the collaboration reflects the growing importance of cloud modernization across the fintech sector as organizations seek to optimize infrastructure efficiency while maintaining high standards of security, reliability and compliance. Tencent Cloud remains committed to supporting fintech companies with cloud technologies, security capabilities, and industry expertise that enable digital transformation, operational excellence and sustainable growth.

Simpaisa Expands Market Presence in Saudi Arabia

The collaboration comes as Simpaisa continues to expand its market presence across key growth markets. Most recently, Simpaisa has expanded into Saudi Arabia through the incorporation of Simpaisa Arabia, a local entity established to offer the same suite of digital payment services to businesses and financial institutions in the Saudi market.

The Saudi Arabia expansion represents an important step in Simpaisa’s broader regional growth strategy, extending its market presence and enabling the company to bring its payment collection and payout capabilities to customers in another key market in the region.

About Tencent Cloud

Tencent Cloud, one of the world’s leading cloud companies, is committed to creating innovative solutions to resolve real-world issues and enabling digital transformation for smart industries. Through our extensive global infrastructure, Tencent Cloud provides businesses across the globe with stable and secure industry-leading cloud products and services, leveraging technological advancements such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT, and network security. It is our constant mission to meet the needs of industries across the board, including the fields of gaming, media and entertainment, finance, healthcare, property, retail, travel, and transportation. 

About Simpaisa

At the crossroads of innovation and impact, Simpaisa pioneers secure, disruptive, and innovative technology infrastructure, amplifying financial inclusivity. They specialize in digital payments services, streamlining the collection of payments and distribution of payouts for our clients. By providing a seamless platform and single API integration, Simpaisa enables businesses to efficiently accept payments from their customers while ensuring secure and timely disbursement of funds to suppliers, partners, and stakeholders.

With customizable solutions tailored to the specific needs of each client, they optimize financial processes, enhance cash flow management, and foster growth for businesses across various industries. This seamless integration simplifies the payment process for merchants, eliminating the need for multiple bank accounts and disparate systems, while also enhancing the end-user experience with secure and streamlined transactions.

Registered in Singapore, Simpaisa leverages its expertise in the frontier markets of South Asia and North Africa. Through their cutting-edge payment solutions, they empower businesses and financial institutions to improve lives and support countless families, forging pathways to achieve seamless accessibility and economic prosperity. Simpaisa has also recently expanded its market presence into Saudi Arabia through its newly incorporated entity, Simpaisa Arabia, which offers the same suite of digital payment services to businesses and financial institutions in the Saudi market.

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XTransfer Secures In-Principle Approval for Retail Payment Services Licence from UAE Central Bank

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Strengthens Trade Connectivity Across the Middle East and Africa

DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — XTransfer, World’s Leading B2B Cross-Border Trade Payment Platform, is pleased to announce that it has secured in-principle approval for a Retail Payment Services Licence from the Central Bank of the UAE, marking another important milestone in the company’s global regulatory expansion and growing presence in the Middle East.

Upon completing the pre-issuance conditions, the licence will enable XTransfer to serve mainland UAE clients and further expand its regulated B2B payment services in the country. Through this licence, XTransfer aims to support businesses engaged in international trade with compliant, secure and efficient payment solutions tailored to cross-border transactions.

The UAE is a key market in XTransfer’s Middle East and Africa strategy. As a major regional trade and re-export hub, the UAE plays an important role in connecting Chinese trade with Africa and wider emerging markets. XTransfer’s presence in the UAE will further strengthen its ability to support trade flows between China, the Middle East, and Africa, providing businesses with more accessible and reliable cross-border payment services.

“Receiving conditional approval from the Central Bank of the UAE is a key milestone for XTransfer’s global regulatory expansion,” said Bill Deng, Founder and CEO of XTransfer. “The UAE is one of the world’s most important trade hubs and an essential gateway between Asia, the Middle East and Africa. This approval reinforces our confidence in the UAE market and its long-term growth potential across the region.”

Following successful licensing across major trade hubs in Asia and Europe, the UAE licence marks another important milestone in XTransfer’s international regulatory roadmap and reflects the company’s growing presence in the Middle East. XTransfer will continue to invest in regulated markets and strengthen its payment infrastructure to support SMEs and trading businesses participating in cross-border commerce.

– End –

About XTransfer

XTransfer is the world’s largest B2B cross-border trade payment platform with over US$60 billion TPV in 2025, according to CIC. Founded in 2017 as one of the first payment platforms worldwide dedicated to B2B cross-border trade, we serve the largest customer base of over 1,000,000 registered SMEs globally.

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EnergyVision accelerates growth in its home market in H1 2026

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GHENT, Belgium, Sept. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EnergyVision (ENRGY:BB), a renewable energy and electric charging company, delivered strong growth in the first half of 2026, driven by the continued expansion of its activities in Belgium.

Revenue increased 57.0% to €98.1 million, while underlying EBITDA rose 45.2% to €22.8 million and net profit grew 53.3% to €6.9 million. Growth was supported by the expansion of EnergyVision’s residential customer base, renewable energy portfolio and electric-vehicle charging infrastructure.

The solar portfolio reached 154.9 MWp and the wind portfolio 37.4 MW. The number of charging points increased by 60.4% year-on-year to 4,120. Customer satisfaction remained strong, with a Net Promoter Score of 43 and a Trustpilot rating of 4.7 out of 5.

Based on its strong first-half performance, EnergyVision raised its 2026 underlying EBITDA growth target from at least 30% to 35%. The company expects underlying EBITDA to grow by at least 40% in 2027, with more than 90% of expected 2027 underlying EBITDA already secured through existing contracts, volumes and production assets.

The unaudited interim financial statements and full press release are available at: https://investors.energyvision.be/en/reports-presentations 

Bloomberg – Euronext Brussels: ENRGY:BB

ISIN: BE0974499312

Yahoo Finance – Euronext Brussels: ENRGY.BR 

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