Low-carbon copper and aluminium products
XLB•A sustainable-metals pricing agency linked to the London Metal Exchange recently published its first premiums for copper and aluminium. Producers’ low-carbon offerings include copper with emissions as low as 0.63 metric tons of CO2 per ton and aluminium with emissions as low as 0.01 ton per ton.
1. Emissions benchmarks
The global average carbon footprint is 3.97 metric tons of CO2 per ton of refined copper and 14.8 tons per ton of primary aluminium. The figures cover Scope 1 direct emissions and Scope 2 and 3 indirect emissions; producers typically include some upstream Scope 3 emissions, but not downstream emissions.
2. Producer offerings
Copper products listed include Montanwerke Brixlegg’s 0.63-ton footprint, Boliden’s 1.5 tons and Aurubis’ 1.3 tons. Aluminium offerings include Norsk Hydro’s CIRCAL products, with footprints of about 1.9 tons for one product and less than 0.5 ton for another made from 100% recycled metal, and Rusal’s ALLOW INERTA at 0.01 ton. Other listed offerings include products from Alcoa, Rio Tinto, Century Aluminum, China Hongqiao Group and Emirates Global Aluminium; the Alcoa and Rio Tinto joint venture ELYSIS is developing technology that emits oxygen instead of CO2.
