China pledges to cut aluminum emissions by 5% by 2025
Photo: Thomas Peter / Reuters
China has pledged to cut carbon emissions from aluminum smelters by 5 percent by 2025 and cut steelmaking capacity as part of a five-year plan. Bloomberg reports.
Such changes are coupled with China's desire to join the global plan to save the planet and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The steel sector accounts for about 15 percent of China's carbon footprint, while aluminum accounts for about 4 percent.
Earlier, the PRC authorities presented a five-year plan, which is designed for 2021-2025. The green targets include reducing the energy intensity of steel production by 2 percent and cement production by 3.7 percent. Steel mills that do not meet ultra-low air pollution standards may be closed or relocated. The authorities also decided to severely limit the consumption of coal in the chemical, steel and building materials industries.
However, despite ambitious plans for decarbonization, the country's emissions are growing every year and have already exceeded the combined emissions of the United States, India, Russia and Japan. For example, the steel giant China Baowu in 2020 polluted the air more than all of Pakistan, and the activities of the oil company China Petroleum & Chemical had a worse environmental impact than the activities of the whole of Canada. The largest share (33 percent) of China's emissions comes from energy supply. Decarbonising the sector requires shutting down thousands of coal-fired power plants and dramatically increasing renewables.
