Climate, nature, and people: Aluminium’s unifying approach to net-zero transformation

by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI)

For too long, heavy industries have been viewed as a major barrier to transitioning to a net-zero world. But what if one of these industries is actually a key part of the climate solution? What if it’s showing us a blueprint for a truly sustainable future, where a strong economy and a healthy planet aren’t mutually exclusive? 

Step forward, aluminium.  

The global demand for aluminium is projected to increase by over 50% by 2050. This growth presents a dual challenge for the industry: it must meet this rising demand while simultaneously achieving decarbonisation to align with global climate goals. Ahead of November’s COP30 in Brazil, it is clear that the aluminium industry is not only aware of this challenge but is actively positioning itself as a central part of the solution. 

The industry’s leaders recognise that climate action can’t exist in a vacuum. A sustainable transition must be holistic, addressing more than just emissions. It’s about protecting nature, empowering communities, and creating a more equitable society. The location of COP30 in Belém, a city that acts as the gateway to the Amazon River in northern Brazil, highlights the crucial connection between global climate policy and the preservation of the planet’s most vital natural ecosystems. 

The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) is proud to have partnered with the World Climate Foundation (WCF) to host a panel event at COP30. Titled ‘Aluminium’s Future: Credible Action to Balance Climate, Nature, and People,’ the panel will explore how the industry can achieve a balanced approach to climate action, with a focus on decarbonising primary production, improving recycling solutions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and aligning with nature, people, and community goals.  

Optimising primary production  

Aluminium is the core metal in many sustainable solutions, including electric vehicles, solar panels, cabling and electrical infrastructure. Therefore, aluminium as a material is crucial to reducing GHG emissions in some of society’s most carbon-heavy industries, such as transportation, transport, and building and construction – industries that have a profound impact on both people and nature.  

However, to have a truly positive influence on these sectors, the aluminium industry must first start at home. We must explore solutions that reduce emissions in primary production to near zero while significantly increasing production to meet growing demand. In 2022, for the first time ever, GHG emissions from global aluminium production did not increase, despite a growth in production. IAI data revealed that while aluminium production grew by 3.9% from 104.1 million tonnes in 2021 to 108.2 in 2022, GHG emissions showed a decline from 1.13 gigatonnes CO2e to 1.11. Additionally, the GHG emissions intensity of primary aluminium production declined by 4.4% from 15.8 tonnes CO2e per tonne of metal to 15.1 in 2022. This reduction has continued for 2023 and 2024 with 14.8 and 14.3 tonnes CO2e/tonne of primary aluminium.  

This indicates that the industry is on the right path, but the journey to even greater decarbonisation hinges on two strategic levers: transitioning to renewable energy sources for power-intensive operations and investing in breakthrough technologies that eliminate process emissions.  

In a pivotal moment at COP28 in 2023, the IAI launched the groundbreaking GHG Initiative. It was created to demonstrate that the commitment to cutting GHG emissions from aluminium producers aligns with national policy goals and global scientific targets, particularly the Paris Agreement’s ambition to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 

Backed by major global signatories from across the aluminium sector, the Initiative transparently reported on robust and detailed company plans to achieve a long-term GHG emission reduction target. Almost two years on, progress has been gratifying: 80% of IAI members have set long-term targets, many at net-zero by 2050, and in addition, the majority of companies are targeting a 30% and more reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030.  

There has also been an industry commitment to investing in innovative technologies. For example, Norsk Hydro is developing an ambitious proprietary technology called HalZero, which aims to fully decarbonise smelting by converting alumina to aluminium chloride in a closed-loop system that emits only oxygen.  

Similarly, Alcoa and Rio Tinto have announced an agreement on an industrial-scale demonstration of ELYSIS, a zero-carbon smelting technology that produces pure oxygen instead of GHG emissions. Alcoa is also pioneering mechanical vapour recompression, which has the potential to drastically reduce alumina refining emissions.  

With approximately 59% of the global primary aluminium industry’s greenhouse gas emissions generated by the electricity required in aluminium production, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has introduced a groundbreaking solution: CelestiAL, its aluminium made using solar power. This significantly reduces the carbon intensity of production and marks a major step towards decarbonisation in the region, demonstrating how sustainable progress can go hand in hand with industrial growth. Additionally, EGA is also exploring carbon capture solutions to reduce emissions in the smelting process.  

Another GHG Initiative signatory, Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio (CBA), is a standout example of low-carbon production leadership, represented by its Alennium seal. The company’s emissions intensity for cast products was 2.69 tCO₂e per tonne in 2024. This is made possible by its vertically integrated model, which allows it to generate 100% of its consumed energy from its own renewable and traceable hydroelectric and wind assets.  

Closing the loop  

While reducing emissions from primary production is critical, aluminium is uniquely positioned as a foundational material for a circular economy because it can be recycled over and over again without loss of quality or properties. The economic and environmental benefits are substantial: recycling requires approximately 95% less energy and produces a carbon footprint that is just 5% of primary smelting.  

Therefore, recycling must continue to be an indispensable pillar of the aluminium industry’s decarbonisation strategy. Data from the IAI shows that the global aluminium recycling efficiency rate is already a robust 76%, affirming its status as one of the most recycled materials on the planet.  

To further increase these rates, particularly for high-volume products like beverage cans, the IAI established the Global Beverage Can Circularity Alliance (GBBCA) at COP28.  

Beverage can production is projected to increase to 630 billion cans by 2030, up from 420 billion at the start of the decade. While over 71% of aluminium cans are currently recycled – and 33% recycled into new cans – the GBBCA recognises more must be done. The Alliance is committed to achieving 80% global aluminium beverage can recycling by 2030 and near 100% by 2050. 

To reach these targets, the GBBCA has outlined four credible actions to supercharge recycling rates: Scaling existing recycling activities, tracking the global recycling rate, supporting policies for improved can collection, and prioritising can-to-can recycling. Central to these ambitions is establishing regulatory frameworks that enable the scaling of breakthrough technologies, such as large-scale deposit return machines, next-generation home recycling systems, and AI-driven processes that can extract aluminium beverage cans from unsorted municipal solid waste streams. 

Closing the loop is only possible if the world’s largest aluminium companies step up their investment in new technologies. That’s why it is exciting to see so many organisations bringing new recycling solutions to the market. Novelis, which achieved a 27% reduction in absolute emissions and a 28% reduction in carbon intensity compared to a 2016 baseline in its 2024 fiscal year, also reached an average of 63% recycled content in its products. It has also completed three large-scale solar energy investments, including at the company’s 14 used beverage can collection centres across Brazil.  

Recycled aluminium production is expected to grow from 41 million tonnes per year today to 92 million tonnes by 2050. With traditional markets for mixed-quality scrap growing at a significantly lower pace than mixed scrap availability, and scrap demand from markets with highly specified alloys growing rapidly, the recycling market needs to accelerate its innovation roadmap.  

Norsk Hydro is investing in advanced recycling facilities and utilising proprietary technologies, such as HySort, which employs laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to sort scrap. Meanwhile, Alcoa is developing its ASTRAEA process to purify post-consumer aluminium scrap, ensuring that more collected material can be reused for high-end products. In 2024, Brazil achieved a 97.3% aluminium can recycling rate, with Novelis alone recycling around 20 billion cans in the country — about two-thirds of the national total — back into cans. Through its 14 strategically located Scrap Collection Centres, Novelis has pioneered a model that strengthens the aluminium recycling chain from collection to production. 

CBA has also developed and patented its ReAl Technology, which enables flexible and aseptic foil packaging to be fully recycled. It chemically separates plastic and aluminium, ensuring complete material separation and total aluminium circularity, while allowing the polymer to be reused in its respective value chain. 

Additionally, EGA is building the largest aluminium recycling facility in the UAE with 170,000 tonnes per year of capacity, transitioning a traditionally primary-focused sector in the Middle East to recycling aluminium scrap.  

It is this level of innovation, which we are seeing across the aluminium industry, that will translate industry commitments into concrete action and, ultimately, change. Walking the walk, not just talking the talk. 

People, nature, and planet  

The WCF has stated strongly that COP30 is a significant opportunity to unify climate and nature strategies and goals as part of its work towards forming industry-specific net-zero and nature roadmaps. The IAI shares the same ambition to deliver solutions for these dual challenges. 

Therefore, the aluminium industry – including policymakers, asset owners, customers, investors, technologists, and aluminium producers – must come together to embed sustainability, biodiversity protection, waste management, and social responsibility across the entire supply chain. Reassuringly, this unified approach is already happening among many of the GHG Initiative’s signatories.  

Alcoa has made tangible commitments to the environment and the community. The company’s mining operations in Australia demonstrate a clear focus on environmental restoration, achieving a 2.03:1 ratio of mine rehabilitation to mine disturbance. This proactive approach to land management, which includes funding forest research and using innovative drilling techniques to minimise disturbance, shows that environmental stewardship must begin even before a shovel touches the ground. From a social standpoint, Alcoa’s commitment to its people is clear. In 2024, it invested $8.2 million in employee learning and development, and saw its employees contribute over 12,300 volunteer hours to local communities. 

Norsk Hydro’s environmental efforts are focused on minimising its impact on the natural world, with a long-term ambition to achieve no net loss of biodiversity in new projects. This commitment is backed by a progressive rehabilitation programme at its bauxite mine in Paragominas, Brazil, where mined areas are progressively rehabilitated and monitored to ensure no lasting harm occurs. Norsk Hydro also launched its Corridor programme at New York Climate Week 2024, a multisector and multi-stakeholder initiative designed to promote low-carbon, inclusive, and biodiversity-positive development along its 244-kilometre bauxite pipeline in the Brazilian Amazon. 

Novelis manages a comprehensive CSR platform, led by its Novelis Neighbour programme. This initiative focuses on three key areas: advancing STEM education, increasing recycling awareness, and supporting local communities. Through partnerships with organisations such as FIRST Robotics and Habitat for Humanity, Novelis connects its employees with meaningful community projects and educates the next generation on the value of recycling.  

CBA has demonstrated a deep responsibility to its social and environmental surroundings. In addition to its low-carbon production, the company’s environmental stewardship includes a Dry Residue Disposal initiative that improves dam safety and reuses residue in other applications. Its obligation to people is reflected in its supply chain practices, where 100% of new suppliers are screened using social and environmental criteria,  in addition to the development of programmes to support local supplier growth. 

This decisive action to invest in and implement solutions that protect people, nature, and climate – as well as profit – is increasingly replicated by aluminium producers worldwide, accelerating the industry’s path to net-zero and securing aluminium’s position as the foremost sustainable metal.   

Forging the future of sustainable industry 

From cars to beverage cans, buildings to aircraft, and electric vehicles to renewable energy infrastructure, the world needs more aluminium than ever, and the industry’s leaders are rising to meet that challenge head-on. They’re not just talking about deep decarbonisation; they’re taking tangible and credible action, with significant investments in both clean energy and groundbreaking new technologies.  

However, the path forward isn’t a single, simple fix. It’s a bold, multi-faceted strategy that tackles the energy-intensive nature of primary production while simultaneously pushing for a revolution in recycling that benefits people, nature, and the climate. By leveraging aluminium’s inherent properties and embracing innovation, the industry is not only future-proofing its own position in the market but is also offering a powerful blueprint for how a heavy industry can thrive in and actively contribute to a net-zero world.   

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About the International Aluminium Institute (IAI)

The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) is the global association representing the aluminium industry. It promotes sustainable practices across the full aluminium value chain, advancing decarbonisation, recycling, and innovation while fostering collaboration between producers, policymakers, and communities. IAI provides research, data, and thought leadership to support a resilient, low-carbon aluminium sector that benefits people, nature, and the climate.