Alcoa has joined the Mission Possible Partnership in its efforts to limit global warming

Alcoa is backing an international, cross-industry strategy to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Mission Possible Partnership aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Alcoa already operates a global alumina refining system that has the world's lowest average carbon dioxide equivalents.

As part of our plan to change the aluminum industry for a sustainable future (IPCC), Alcoa is supporting an international, cross-industry plan to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This plan was recommended by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The Mission Possible Partnership (MPP) is a big plan to get greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. It includes seven industries that are important for getting to a low-carbon future, like aluminum, which is a key material for technologies that get rid of carbon.

“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.”

The following are key elements of the MPP's strategy:

Decarbonizing aluminum manufacturing electricity consumption Decarbonizing direct aluminum processing emissions Increasing aluminum scrap recycling Alcoa's global system for refining alumina already has the lowest average CO2 equivalents in the world, and more than 80% of our global smelting portfolio is powered by clean energy.

The MPP's strategy includes elements that are consistent with Alcoa's current decarbonization strategy. This includes our goal to have net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from all of our operations around the world by the year 2050. The main part of this plan is a technology roadmap, which includes innovations like our ELYSISTM joint venture, which gets rid of all GHG emissions from the smelting process, and our Refinery of the Future initiative, which uses a lot of different technologies and process improvements to get rid of emissions and find good uses for bauxite waste.

Mid-point sustainability goals support our Company's ambition to achieve net-zero GHG emissions by 2050: 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.

Source: Alcoa news release