Jostein Søreide on the biggest challenges the aluminium industry is facing for a green transition
After the Industry Transition Summit, Climate Action caught up, Jostein Søreide, LCA and Sustainability Manager at Hydro, to discuss the biggest challenges the aluminium industry is facing for a green transition.
After the Industry Transition Summit, Climate Action caught up, Jostein Søreide, LCA and Sustainability Manager at Hydro, to discuss the biggest challenges the aluminium industry is facing for a green transition.
Norsk Hydro was partner at Climate Action’s Industry Transition Summit as part of our Roadmap to COP26. What are the biggest challenges you see to a green transition in your industry, and how can we overcome these?
The demand for aluminium will grow by more than 70% towards 2050, whilst the total sector emissions needs to be reduced by 80% during the same period. A large portion of this reduction can be achieved by decarbonizing the electricity sector, but step change technologies are also needed. These do not exist today. Improving post-consumer scrap recycling to avoid metal being lost is also important to ensure a higher degree of circularity. To drive the necessary change in our industry, joint efforts are needed – to develop novel technologies and to increase the circularity of our metal.
Clean technology requires metals, such as aluminium, and the demand for these metals is expected to continue growing until 2050. How can the industry balance its role as an enabler whilst continuing to reduce its emissions?
This is a big challenge as zero carbon technologies for aluminium production does not exist. The aluminium industry thus needs to work on a pathway that combines the increasing need for aluminium with the urgent need to reduce emissions. This is only possible through collaboration and regulatory incentives that enables the massive investments needed. There is an increasing understanding in our industry that changes need to be made and there is a level of urgency. However, metal producers come from different starting points, and the pathway to zero is more challenging for some.
In Jostein Søreide’s session, he expressed his concern about sub-optimisation and greenwashing of ‘green’ metals. What can regulations and market-mechanisms do to help solve this?
Lack of common standards leads to sub-optimisation and greenwashing today. Education about industry realities is therefore important. A key question should always be: does this approach or product actually lead to the needed change? If not, there is a high risk that what we see is sub-optimization or greenwashing. Regulators and customers should always pay attention to this.
Which do you think will be more effective for the decarbonisation of metals in the long-run, new technologies (such as Hydrogen and CCS) or more circular solutions (such as recycling and LCAs)?
Both will be important. When the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) developed its GHG Pathways towards 2050, it pointed to two needed transitions: lower the carbon footprint of the primary aluminium production through decarbonisation of the electricity sector and implementation of new technologies, and increase the collection and use of post-consumer scrap to avoid the metal being lost.
As we continue our Roadmap to COP26, with renewed ambition, what is one thing that you see as critical to accelerating the transition in your industry over the course of the next decade?
Financial instruments that support the development and implementation of zero carbon technologies and CCS.
Hydro spoke at the Industry Transition Summit on 18 & 20 May! Watch on demand to hear from a growing network of key players in industry and harder to abate sectors to further drive decarbonisation through policy and regulation, to innovation, technology and investment.
