Alcoa joined nine highly esteemed U.S.-based companies and four leading environmental organizations to call on the U.S. government to quickly enact strong national legislation to achieve significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
Alcoa and its partners have formed an unprecedented alliance called the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) to send a clear signal to lawmakers that legislative action is urgently needed. USCAP consists of market leaders Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, PG&E, and PNM Resources along with leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Environmental Defense, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Natural Resources Defense Council, and World Resources Institute.
“Each year that we delay action to control emissions increases the risk of unavoidable consequences that could necessitate even steeper reductions in the future, at potentially greater economic cost and social disruption,” said Alcoa Chairman Alain Belda. Belda represented Alcoa at congressional and national press briefings introducing USCAP on January 22, 2007.
Mandate for Action
The USCAP partners have outlined specific recommendations that form a “Call for Action”. The group believes a U.S. policy framework must include mandatory approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from economic sectors with the highest emissions; flexible approaches to establish a price signal for carbon that varies by economic sector; and incentives for other countries to take action.
USCAP’s recommendations are based on six principles specifying that U.S. climate policy must:
- Account for the global dimensions of climate change;
- Recognize the importance of technology;
- Be environmentally effective;
- Create economic opportunity and advantage;
- Be fair to sectors disproportionately impacted; and
- Recognize and encourage early action.
USCAP calls for mandatory reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from major emitting sectors, including large stationary sources and transportation, and energy use in commercial and residential buildings. The cornerstone of its proposed approach is a “cap-and-trade” program that places specified limits on greenhouse case emissions. This will ensure emission reduction targets are met while simultaneously generating a price signal that will provide market incentives to stimulate investment and innovation in the technologies necessary to achieve the environmental goals. “To meet this challenge, we must have innovative technologies in the areas of energy production and consumption and we must start here in the U.S.,” said Belda.
“Sure, addressing climate change involves risks and costs. But much greater is the risk of failing to act. I am convinced that we can build a global plan of action on climate change in ways that create more economic opportunities than risks.”
 - Alain Belda |
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Part of the Solution
Alcoa has long been a leader in addressing climate change. Our specific accomplishments—rooted in our culture of environmental stewardship—include:
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% since 1990, a goal reached seven years ahead of our 2010 target date mainly through aggressive reduction of Perfluorocarbon (PFC) emissions.
- Efficiently using energy, thanks to the Alcoa Energy Efficiency Network established in 2002 as a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct energy efficiency surveys at operating locations and identify areas of possible improvement. We were recognized as a national leader in energy conservation and environmental stewardship by the Industrial Energy Technology Conference Advisory Board in 2005
- Increasing the use of aluminum to lighten the weight of vehicles. Since 1990, increased use of aluminum in the world's vehicles has avoided burning 84 billion liters of gasoline and more than one billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. If the amount of aluminum was increased from today’s average of 250 pounds to 400 pounds, the nation’s light vehicle fleet would achieve a 6% drop in gasoline consumption and 6% reduction in global vehicle carbon emissions.
- Investing in green power as a charter member of the U.S.-based Green Power Market Development Group. Alcoa purchased enough renewable energy certificates (RECs) to effectively power four of its corporate centers in the United States. These facilities are now effectively operating on electricity generated by projects that produce electricity from landfill gas, avoiding the emissions of more than 6.3 million kilograms (13.9 million pounds) of carbon dioxide annually.
- Building a cleaner future. Our newest smelter, the 346,000 mtpy smelter in Iceland runs on 100% hydropower, an abundant and renewable resource in Iceland, and has been built to comply with some of the most stringent environmental regulations in the world.
- Planting ten million trees, which can absorb more than 250,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year during their lifetime, by 2020.
“Even though we’ve made substantive changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we can and should do better,” said Belda. “In fact, we must do better.” He explained that Alcoa must now use its leadership position to encourage others to change as well. “The changes that are needed can’t be incremental—we need major breakthroughs,” he said, explaining why we chose to be a founding member of USCAP. “Meeting the challenge ahead of us won’t be easy—we recognize it will call for significant change not only for others, but even for leaders such as ourselves. But I believe there is no other option. Much greater is the risk of failing to act.”
USCAP founding members
| Industry |
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NGOs |
| Alcoa |
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Environmental Defense |
| BP America |
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Natural Resources Defense Council |
| Caterpillar |
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Pew Center on Global Climate Change |
| Duke Energy |
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World Resources Institute |
| DuPont |
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| General Electric |
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| PG&E |
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| PNM Resources |
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USCAP founding principles |
- Account for the global dimensions of climate change
- Recognize the importance of technology
- Be environmentally effective
- Create economic opportunity and advantage
- Be fair to sectors disproptionately impacted
- Recognize and encourage early action
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“We know we must address climate change. This group of companies and NGO’s may not have sorted out every detail, but we are willing to take a leadership position and embrace open dialogue... that will get us all to our common goals of protecting our world for future generations. The changes that are needed can’t be incremental; we need major breakthroughs.”
- Alain Belda
Founding news release
 go
USCAP web site
go
"A Call for Action"
USCAP's consensus principles and recommendations
download pdf
Comments from founding USCAP executives
download pdf
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