Henry Sanderson is executive editor at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the leading provider of data and analysis on the lithium-ion battery supply chain. He previous covered commodities and mining for the Financial Times for seven years. Before that he lived and worked in China from 2007 to 2014, where he was a Beijing-based reporter for Bloomberg News. He is the author of Volt Rush, the Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green, which was published in September. He tweets at @hjesanderson and lives in London with his wife and two children.
My new book Volt Rush, the Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green, is out now in the UK, and in the US. Pre-order here: http://bit.ly/385q6Pe
Panelist: SESSION: Energy
Wealth Flows from Energy and Ideas: The future is green energy. How does the aluminium industry get there?
Panelist: SESSION: China
Whither the Giant? Where is China with the climate goals? Can China break through to truly low carbon aluminium?
All Sessions by Henry Sanderson
In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060.
- Where is China with the climate goals?
- How about the development of solar and wind capacity? What about Nuclear? How does China energy mix look like at the moment?
- Is China's aluminium industry committed to using alternative energy for its operations?
- Does it seem like these goals will be met as per the timeline set? What to expect from China during the COP27 Summit?
- Will China aluminium industry keep growing? What of the 45MT capacity cap?
- Is China under a threat from lower cost countries? Is it under pressure to meet the international market demand for higher standards?
- At the top end, big companies and large conglomerates are setting their standards according to the aluminium they consume, but what about the thousands of downstream factories in China? What standards and how much involvement there is at the grass root level?
- What about the average Chinese citizen, how do they feel about climate change? Is there any awareness about the aluminium industry and its fight against climate change? What is the general attitude with regards to aluminium recycling across the country? What is the average household doing with regards to recycling in general? Are there any facilities available for aluminium recycling? How uniform or accessible is it in the rural versus urban China?
- What are the merits and disadvantages of China aluminium production?
- China's new aluminium capacity is based on hydroelectricity, making that metal suitable as a low carbon source. What role does China see for itself in the global green aluminium market?
The world needs to act on climate change. The aluminium industry generates around 1.1 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year constituting 1% of the total global caused CO2 emissions. Our industry must do our part to reduce our carbon footprint and improve the world's fight against climate change. We need to reboot commitments and actions to meet the needs of the environment. We especially need to re-evaluate our energy supply.
- How can we achieve the 80% reduction in emissions that we need?
- How many shades of green are there in Aluminium?
- What’s the challenges and opportunities for Hydroelectricity, Wind and Solar energy?
- What about Nuclear Energy? is it classified as green energy? is it a potential? How is uranium waste safely disposed?
- What about other inventions and new breakthrough solutions? Like large scale storage batteries farms and facilities?
- Do governments recognise the value in allocating scarce energy resources to aluminium?
- Until we reach our utopia of zero environmental impact, what can we do with our current technology?
- What other new technologies do we need to develop?
