China’s Aluminium Industry must advance Green and Low-carbon development to reach carbon emission peak by 2030: Yu Dehui

Yu Dehui, the former general manager of Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd. (CHALCO), suggested that China, the world’s largest aluminium producer and consumer, must advance the green and low-carbon development of the aluminium industry to reach the carbon dioxide emission peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

The news came after S&P Global Platts reported that Yu suggested China to set up the total carbon emission target for the aluminium industry, while speaking on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He also recommended China to carry out quota management for carbon emission, given the aluminium consumption in the country will keep rising and reach the peak expectedly by 2035.

China should also ramp-up the ratio for clean energy consumption and set measures to support the development of secondary aluminium industry, according to Yu Dehui. He noted that only 14 per cent of Chinese primary aluminium smelters adopted clean energy, while 86 per cent relied on thermal energy in 2019.

1 tonne of primary aluminium production with thermal energy emits 11.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide, while smelting with clean energy emits nearly zero emission. In 2019, China’s primary aluminium smelters with thermal power production emitted 350 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, accounting for 3.6 per cent of the national’s total.

Secondary aluminium production, on the other hand, consumed energy equivalent to 5 per cent of primary aluminium production energy consumption. In 2020, China’s primary aluminium output of 37.08 million tonnes emitted about 424 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, compared to 4.14 million tonnes of carbon emission while producing 7.4 million tonnes of secondary aluminium, showed China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Recycling Metal Branch.