The largest private-sector aluminium producer said last week that it plans to publish its targets for cutting carbon emissions along with a roadmap for achieving that end.
China Hongqiao Group’s chairman Zhang Bo revealed at the China Development Forum that his firm was partnering with a number of top institutions around the world to establish a carbon-reduction plan.
Hongqiao would announce its goals and plans for carbon reduction later in the year, he said.
“We hope to explore specific paths and methods for the low-carbon transformation of China’s aluminium industry,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters yesterday.
China’s aluminium industry is taking a note from their counterparts in the domestic steel industry, as they have previously announced a goal to become carbon neutral by mid-century. As China’s aluminium industry alone emits more carbon than many neighboring countries do from their entire economy, the sector has faced mounting calls to emulate national plans to begin carbon reduction by decade’s end and carbon neutrality by 2050.
Already Hongqiao affiliate Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group and state-owned smelter Aluminum Corp of China together released an overall plan for China’s aluminium sector to cut carbon emissions.
Hongqiao has already begun taking steps to reduce carbon emissions by relocating a portion of its 5.62 million metric tons per annum of smelting capacity from coal-fired production in northeast China across the country to hydropower-fueled plants in the country’s southwest. It is also working towards establishing an aluminium recycling operation in Shandong.