Reuters reported that Japan Aluminium Association said last week that Japan’s aluminium industry by 2050 aims to cut CO2 emissions by 78% versus 2017 levels by raising the use of recycled metal to 75% from the current 48%. As part of a new long-term vision, the industry also aims to boost local demand by 43% to 6.02 million tonnes a year by 2050 from 4.22 million tonnes in 2019 by expanding its use in segments including transportation and construction. Japan Aluminium Association Chairman Ichiro Okamoto told a news conference “With the new vision, we intended to make a strong impression of the fine characteristics of aluminium such as high environmental performance and show our strong will to boost our presence.”

The new outlook also calls for Japan’s aluminium industry to increase the use of secondary metal in rolled products and extrusions to 50% by 2050 from the current 10% through development of various technologies including involving the sorting of scrap. The industry group is also counting on innovation in smelting and refining technology by smelters to make refined ingots with lower CO2 emissions to help achieve its CO2 reduction target

The International Aluminium Institute’s estimates indicate the need to reduce C02 emissions in global aluminum smelting by 80 to 90% by 2050, in order to achieve the Paris Agreement. The current formulation assumes a 50 to 70% reduction by 2050 in CO2 emission intensity of primary aluminium imported from abroad.

Utilizing such properties as lighter products and higher thermal efficiency will contribute to CO2 reductions in a wide variety of areas, including automobiles and industry. This vision does not include calculations on the CO2 emissions reduction effects at the product stage.