Transition to green is under threat unless govt. supports: Norsk Hydro Chief Executive

On 11th October 2021, Hilde Merete Aasheim, CEO of Norwegian aluminium and one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide, Norsk Hydro said: “The green transition is under threat unless governments can level the playing field between metal producers who are forced to pay offset costs for their emissions and those who are not.”

In a keynote speech at the opening of LME Week in London, the metal industry's yearly summit, Hilde Merete Aasheim said: “Some are subject to the world's most ambitious climate policies, while others are not.”

"If some of the world's greenest production has higher CO2 costs than many of those producing with a formidable CO2 footprint, that is not an efficient incentive structure to promote a speedy and successful green transition," she added.

The metal giant’s CEO comments emerged weeks ahead of the United Nations' COP26 summit in Glasgow in November, where countries will aim to accomplish the technical rules to put the Paris Agreement into effect.

The largest polluter of greenhouse gas in the metal industry is the aluminium sector. However, the manufacturing firms in recent years rolled out a raft of products with lower carbon footprints, largely by either using hydropower or recycled material.

The lightweight metal aluminium is produced to be utilised in food packaging, cars and construction are extremely power intense and China, the world's supreme producer, whose aluminium smelters are still strongly dependent on fossil fuel.

In July 2021, the European Commission proposes an import tax on some carbon-intensive products, designed to shield European industries from competitors abroad who can manufacture at a lower cost because they are not charged for their carbon output.

The world’s largest aluminium producer with operations in some 50 countries around the world, Hydro targets by 2030 to limit CO2 emissions by 30%.

The Norwegian company’s main priorities for reaching the goal, along with offering verified low-carbon and recycled aluminium by installing a cleaner energy mix at its alumina refinery Alunorte in Brazil - which operates on heavy fuel oil.

Aasheim said: "The response is good; we are experiencing a great traction in the market."

Hydro dragged in record profits in Q2 2021 following the surge in aluminium prices, backed up by the global economy, but pandemic restrictions have delivered a legacy of supply-chain congestion.

Aasheim concluded by saying: "First, we had to learn how to adapt to the pandemic. Now we have to learn how to adapt to the recovery. It turns out we are still not done with the first, and that the second is stress-testing the capacities of global logistics.”