Dust Control & Environment

thyssenkrupp to go carbon neutral by 2050

Guido Kerkhoff

thyssenkrupp has unveiled a new climate strategy, with a goal to become carbon neutral from 2050 onward.

Taking inspiration from the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, thyssenkrupp aims to cut emissions from production and outsourced energy by around 30 per cent from as early as 2030.

It has also set a 2030 goal to reduce emissions from its products by 16 per cent.

thyssenkrupp CEO Guido Kerkhoff said the threats posed by climate change affect us all.

“As an industrial company with operations around the globe we are in a particularly good position to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable products and processes,” Kerkhoff said.

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“We take this responsibility very seriously and have received several awards for this in recent years. Now we are setting ourselves clear targets for 2030 and 2050 as the next logical step.”

thyssenkrupp’s targets will include its production operations, the energy it purchased and it products.

It is currently pursuing two approaches to becoming carbon neutral and reducing its carbon dioxide emissions from its steel production through its Carbon2Chem project.

Carbon2Chem converts steel mill emission gases, including carbon dioxide, into chemicals. It expects the technology to be available on an industrial scale before 2030.

It also plans to replace coal with hydrogen as the reducing agent for blast furnaces so that no carbon dioxide is created in the production of steel.

thyssenkrupp Board member responsible for technology, innovation, sustainability, legal and compliance Donatus Kaufmann said the company’s goals are ambitious but achievable.

“Our strategy for our steel operations alone will cut production-related emissions there by 80 percent by 2050,” Kaufmann said.

“But if we are to achieve our climate targets, we need to make significantly more use of renewable energies.

“Also, there are no internationally harmonised financial incentives for investments in CO2 abatement technologies. These are basic requirements for making a real change.”

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