BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 5. Producers of metals have to deliver increasing volume of material required for the future carbon free economy without compromising ESG standards, Trend reports with reference to Fitch Ratings.
The report from Fitch reveals that key energy transition challenge is to reduce GHG emissions across the whole metal value chain.
“Emissions intensity of cobalt, aluminium and nickel mining and processing is high, hence skyrocketing demand may result in rising net carbon footprint. The largest source of emissions in metals production stems from electricity generation. In global aluminium production electricity accounts for 60 percent of GHG footprint, largely due to the fact that most of facilities are powered by thermal coal electricity especially in China.
There are three pathways to reduce emissions in metal production: 1. Decarbonise electricity source through shifting from coal to renewables generation; 2. Reduce direct emissions with e.g. inert anode technologies in aluminum; 3. Increase recycling and process efficiency through enhancing collection rates and efficiency of recycling, close loop manufacturing. International Aluminium Institute (IAI) calculated that the industry has to cut its emissions by 80% by 2050 vs 2018 to comply with IEA’s 2 degrees scenario while during this time demand for primary aluminium will increase by 40 percent. IAI estimated that decarbonisation of energy supplies will require USD500 billion-USD1.5 trillion investments.”