IAI commemorates World Environment Day revealing a downtrend in 2022 GHG emissions from aluminium production

On the occasion of World Environment Day, International Aluminium Institute revealed its latest factsheet on 2022 greenhouse gas emissions, indicating a decline in emissions amid aluminium production growth.

2022 data shows the greenhouse gas emissions from aluminium industry decreased significantly over a year from 1.13 giga-tonnes CO2e to 1.11 giga-tonnes CO2e. The GHG emissions intensity also declined from 15.8 tonnes CO2e per tonne to 15.1 tonnes CO2e per tonne. However, the production of aluminium (both primary and recycled) grew in the said year by 3.9 per cent from 104.1 million tonnes to 108.2 million tonnes.

Aluminium is also popularly known as ‘Green Metal’ because it enables other industrial sectors, such as automotive, transport, building and construction, and food and drink packaging, to reduce carbon emissions. Both primary and recycled aluminium are good at this, with the former’s production growing from 67.1 million tonnes in 2021 to 69 million tonnes in 2022.

As the above graph shows, aluminium production, including primary and recycled, grew uninterruptedly from 2015 to 2022 from 86.2 million tonnes to 108.2 million tonnes, recording a compound growth rate of 25.52 per cent. In tandem with the production growth, GHG emissions rose until 2020 from 983 million tonnes to 1,133 million tonnes. Post 2020, the emissions of greenhouse gases decreased by 1.85 per cent in two years to 1,112 million tonnes at the end of 2022 as a result of insurmountable efforts across the world towards reducing carbon emissions and achieving sustainability.

Significant investments into research, development and implementation of new technologies, and conscious shift to renewable energy sources led to the three years back-to-back downfall in GHG emissions from aluminium industry.

IAI Secretary General Miles Prosser said: “Our challenge is to reduce emissions while growing production.  Aluminium demand is expected to grow significantly over the decades ahead, because of its role in decarbonisation economy-wide. This will tend to drive increased emissions. But at the same time, the industry is reducing the average emissions intensity of each tonne of production.”

He added, “The 2022 data shows the effectiveness of work by the aluminium industry to reduce the emissions intensity of production. While much remains to be done, 2022 was the first year that these intensity reductions offset production growth.”

He further said, “The transformation needed in the industry to meet global climate targets is much bigger than the early changes we are witnessing. Emissions reductions must be deeper, faster and more widespread, but for the first time, we can talk about heading in the right direction.”

He concluded by saying, “If we continue to see investment and implementation of low-carbon energy sources and GHG reduction technologies, 2021 could be the year that GHG emissions from the aluminium industry peaked.”

The International Aluminium Institute has concluded this trend on the basis of tracking more than 50 projects across the global industry that have contributed immensely to reducing carbon emissions.