Alcoa joins Mission Possible Partnership as aluminum industry seeks to limit global warming

As part of our vision to reinvent the aluminum industry for a sustainable future, Alcoa is backing an international, cross-industry strategy to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as recommended by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The Mission Possible Partnership (MPP) is an ambitious effort to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It involves seven industrial sectors that are key to this transition to a low-carbon future, including aluminum, a critical material for decarbonization technologies.

“The aluminum industry has a critical role to play in delivering a more sustainable future and the MPP aluminum sector transition strategy presents a clear path towards achieving greater GHG emissions reductions,” said Benjamin Kahrs, Alcoa’s Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer. “At Alcoa, we are ready to collaborate to make a sustainable future a reality.”

Key aspects of the MPP’s strategy include:

• Decarbonizing electricity consumption in aluminum manufacturing
• Decarbonizing direct emissions from aluminum processing
• Increasing the recycling of aluminum scrap

Alcoa already operates a global alumina refining system that has the world’s lowest average carbon dioxide equivalents, and more than 80 percent of our global smelting portfolio is powered by renewable energy.

The MPP’s strategy includes components that align with Alcoa’s existing decarbonization path. This includes our ambition to achieve net-zero GHG emissions across all global operations by 2050. Serving as a backbone to this plan is a technology roadmap that includes innovations such as our ELYSIS™ joint venture, which eliminates all GHG emissions from the smelting process, and our Refinery of the Future initiative that bundles numerous technologies and process improvements to eliminate emissions while also developing beneficial applications for bauxite residue.

Our Company’s ambition to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 is also supported by mid-point sustainability goals: We intend to reduce GHG emissions from aluminum smelting and alumina refining operations by 30% by 2025 and 50% by 2030, based on 2015 baselines.

Read more about the MPP and the zero-carbon strategy here.

Read Alcoa’s sustainability report here.

Read more about Alcoa’s net-zero ambition here.