RUSAL has finished first in the third all-Russian competition to determine the most effective company when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This competition, entitled "Climate and Responsibility – 2019", was held with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation.
The competition is aimed at drawing attention to the problem of climate change, identifying and advising best practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrating the achievements of companies and constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the climate sector.
“The carbon footprint of RUSAL’s aluminium is one of the lowest in the world, which is a result of the Company's long-term strategy in its commitment to climate change. We plan on continuing to focus on this area, primarily by increasing the share of products with a minimum carbon footprint in our portfolio. This is the future not only of the aluminium industry, but of the entire global industry,” commented Evgenii Nikitin, CEO of RUSAL.
For more than ten years, reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been one of the main objectives of the Company's strategy, which includes events and initiatives in domestic and foreign markets which help to achieve the set goals. In 2007, RUSAL launched the Safe Future Strategy initiative, aimed at reducing and minimising its impact on the environment. As part of this initiative, the following goal was set: by 2015, to achieve a 50% overall reduction in total direct greenhouse gas emissions from existing aluminium smelters. By 2014, this goal had already been achieved with a total 53% reduction. The strategic goal for the next decade is to reduce direct specific greenhouse gas emissions by 15% for all aluminium smelters. Since 2017, the Company has also been applying the internal carbon price when making its strategic and investment decisions.
At the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, RUSAL announced the implementation of Russia's first voluntary initiative in the field of greenhouse gas absorption, which, in particular, provides for the planting of at least 500,000 trees in an area of 120 hectares in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as well as organising activities to protect forests from fires in the Lower Yenisei Forestry. Aerial forest protection activities will be carried out on an area of over 500,000 hectares, which will make it possible to expand the area of permanent monitoring of the forests in the Forestry, and thus minimise the fire and illegal logging risks. In addition, RUSAL will plant more than 500,000 trees in other regions of Russia, on an area of more than 120 hectares.
Today, more than 90% of RUSAL metal is produced using environmentally friendly hydroelectric power, the generation of which eliminates harmful emissions, and the Company continues to work to improve this indicator. The revolutionary project for the aluminium industry to introduce a carbon-free aluminium production technology using inert anodes is at an advanced stage.
