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October 17, 2005
Wayne Osborn address to Alumina Quality Workshop -Aluminium: part of the solution on global climate change
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Minister, the Honourable Alan Carpenter, Anita Roper, Distinguished guests…
Good morning and welcome to the Alumina Quality Workshop.
I’m very pleased to see so many of the brightest minds in our industry coming together to share your knowledge on such an important topic: sustainability.
And I congratulate Michael Nunes and his committee for organising the conference. I know you’ve worked very hard to bring it together.
Before I start, I’ll just explain that when I talk about the aluminium industry, that includes all of us, from bauxite to beer cans and back to the recycling plant.
The conference theme is highly appropriate because all of you - presenters and delegates - are working to improve sustainability, in one way or another.
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of launching the Australian Aluminium Council’s first industry sustainability report.
One of the very important sustainability indicators in that report is our commitment to research and development.
As an industry, we invest more than $40 million each year on research and development and much of that activity is focused on sustainability issues.
Alcoa and Alcan both have global research facilities in Australia, and Rio Tinto Aluminium also maintains a substantial research presence here.
The industry sustainability report also shows how we’re performing in key areas like:
• Greenhouse
• Recycling
• Energy use
• Land and water management
• Spent pot linings
• And fluoride emissions
And of course, there’s our contribution to economic sustainability. The Australian aluminium industry employs around 17,000 people, mostly in regional areas.
And our presence in those regional areas generates opportunities for a variety of other businesses, creating more jobs and prosperity.
If you haven’t seen the industry report, I commend it as an excellent overview of our industry and its sustainability issues.
It will be no surprise to any of you that greenhouse is one of our key sustainability issues …
… and it’s an issue for all of us, no matter where we sit in the industry.
I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about the big picture on greenhouse and our goal of making aluminium “climate-neutral”.
As you all know, aluminium production uses a lot of energy which produces greenhouse emissions.
But on the other side of the equation, aluminium is also part of the solution because it’s helping to reduce greenhouse emissions…particularly in the transport sector.
We’re seeing more and more aluminium used in motor vehicles to replace heavier metals like steel.
And by reducing the weight of a vehicle, we reduce its fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.
It’s a simple equation but the sums are compelling.
By cutting 10% off a vehicle’s weight, we can boost its fuel economy by around 8%.
To put it another way … each kilogram of aluminium that replaces heavier metals in a motor vehicle cuts its carbon dioxide emissions by 20 kilograms over the life of the vehicle.
To give you an example of what can be achieved in light-weighting, the high aluminium content of Ferrari’s new 612 Scaglietti has reduced its weight by 40%.
Of course, we can’t all afford a Ferrari…
… but we’re seeing the same trends in ordinary cars too.
In the past decade, we’ve seen the aluminium content of a standard passenger vehicle double from 64 kilograms to around 130 kilograms.
That’s achieved a weight reduction that saves around 1000 litres of petrol over the life of the vehicle.
And we think there’s potential to double the aluminium content again, which would reduce a car’s life-time fuel consumption by over 2000 litres.
That’s good news … for the motorist and the environment.
In our corner of the big picture, the Australian aluminium industry has made outstanding progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
For example, the Australian smelting sector has reduced direct greenhouse emissions by around 22% from 1990 to 2003.
And when you factor in the production increases we achieved in the same period, the greenhouse intensity actually improved by a staggering 48%.
In the refining sector, we have some very impressive greenhouse projects. For example…
• QAL’s replacement of its rotary kilns with new calciners
• Alcan’s plan to switch from oil to natural gas at Gove
• Our cogeneration power plants at the Pinjarra refinery
• We’ve also recently reached agreement with Alinta to build another two co-gen plants at Wagerup
Similar projects are happening across our industry and across the world.
Aluminium recycling is another very important part of the greenhouse solution because it uses just a fraction of the energy needed for refining and smelting.
Around the world, we’re working to
• Increase recycling capacity
• Upgrade our technology
• And improve recycling rates.
These are just some of the initiatives that are part of the quest to become climate-neutral … to reach the point where the emission reductions achieved through the use of aluminium offset the emissions generated in its production.
We think that this can be achieved by 2017 --- just 12 years away.
And now, I have great pleasure in introducing Western Australia’s Minister for State Development and Energy, Alan Carpenter.
Alan has been the key minister for our industry since February this year. Before that, he was Education Minister for four years, and the Western Australians among you will probably remember him from his days as a senior ABC journalist.
He has shown a tremendous appetite for learning in his new portfolio, and he and his office have worked hard to understand the key issues of the resources and energy industries.
Alan oversees a portfolio that’s vital to our state’s economic success and to the national economy as well.
The importance of his portfolio was demonstrated just two weeks ago when the latest international trade figures showed Western Australia now accounts for 31 percent of Australia’s exports.
Many of you have played a part in creating those exports, so please join me in welcoming Alan Carpenter.
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