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INDUSTRY NEWS
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ALTANA CO2 Neutral by 2025
By 2025 the specialty chemicals group will
reduce its CO2 impact from production
and energy procurement to zero worldwide In order to further reduce its CO2 emissions, ALTANA is relying on
greater energy efficiency as well as heat and electricity generation at
its worldwide sites. In the long term, renewable energies should also
replace natural gas as a source of energy. In addition to the existing
solar systems at ELANTAS in Ascoli Piceno,
Complete conversion to green electricity
already in 2020 Italy, and at BYK in Deventer, the Netherlands, a further photovoltaic
system went into operation at ELANTAS in Pune, India, which covers
the electricity requirements of the new research center at this site. In
Collecchio, Italy, ELANTAS is currently constructing another
photovoltaic system for a new production and laboratory building.
Call for signifi cant strengthening of
renewable energies
By 2025 the specialty chemicals group ALTANA will reduce its CO2
impact from production and energy procurement worldwide to zero.
Already in 2020, the company’s entire power supply will be converted to
renewable energies. ALTANA will compensate for the unavoidable use of
natural gas until 2025 by financing equivalent climate protection projects
in the regions where CO2 emissions are generated. The same applies to
offsetting CO2 emissions arising from necessary business trips, company
cars, and the transport of goods. The specialty chemicals group will thus
achieve climate neutrality in its direct sphere of influence by 2025.
“We want to leave our footprint on innovations, not on emissions,”
said Martin Babilas, CEO of ALTANA AG, explaining the decision.
“With our CO2 neutrality program up to 2025, we are fulfilling our
responsibility for climate protection and consistently pursuing our
sustainability course.” In 2017, ALTANA had already achieved the
goal it set itself in 2007 of reducing CO2 emissions by 30 percent
in relation to gross value added by 2020.
Aside from the measures at its own sites, ALTANA is setting up a
program in close cooperation with its suppliers to consistently
further improve the CO2 balance of purchased raw materials, too.
This makes ALTANA one of the companies that consider the CO2
emissions of their entire value chain.
“Industry must create the facts, politics the framework”
According to ALTANA CEO Babilas, industry plays a decisive role in
driving forward global climate protection. “The more companies that
commit themselves to climate neutrality and create the relevant facts,
the faster we can achieve the Paris climate protection targets.” However,
he added, policymakers should create an indispensable framework
for this. The climate protection targets cannot be achieved without
sufficient electricity from renewable energies at competitive prices and
the corresponding grid infrastructure. Based on current calculations
by the VCI, the German Chemical Industry Association, the annual
electricity needs of the German chemical industry on the way to
greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050 will increase to more than eleven
times the current value
(628 TWh compared to
54 TWh today).
“We are therefore
calling on policymakers
to promote renewable
energies much more
strongly and swiftly.
Incentives must be
created to ensure that
sufficient electricity and
heat capacities from
CO2 neutral sources
will continue to be
available in the future,”
says Babilas. “New
procedures must be
accelerated by public
subsidies and barriers to
use and own production
must be eliminated.
Furthermore,
policymakers should
create comparable
competitive conditions
for the industry with
internationally uniform
CO2 pricing,” he adds.
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JANUARY 2020
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