thyssenkrupp to be climate neutral by 2050

(Posted on 07/07/19)

thyssenkrupp aims to be climate neutral from 2050 onwards. As early as 2030 the Group plans

to cut emissions from production and outsourced energy by around 30 percent. Emissions

from the use of thyssenkrupp products are to fall by 16 percent by 2030. thyssenkrupp’s new

climate strategy is based on the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015.

thyssenkrupp CEO Guido Kerkhoff: “The threats posed by climate change affect us all. As an

industrial company with operations around the globe we are in a particularly good position to

reduce greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable products and processes. We take this

responsibility very seriously and have received several awards for this in recent years. Now we

are setting ourselves clear targets for 2030 and 2050 as the next logical step.”

In February thyssenkrupp was named as a global leader in climate protection for the third year

in a row by the non-governmental organization CDP, which assesses whether companies have

formulated a coherent strategy on how to further improve their own environmental performance

as well as that of customers and suppliers. thyssenkrupp once again achieved the highest

score possible and was placed on CDP’s global “A List”. The list includes roughly 130

businesses worldwide and only five DAX companies.

The targets now announced take in thyssenkrupp’s own production operations, the energy it

purchases and its products. In steel production, for example, thyssenkrupp is currently

pursuing two approaches to reducing CO2 emissions: The Carbon2Chem project, which is

expected to be available on an industrial scale before 2030, and the so-called hydrogen route,

which should take full effect by 2050 and make the biggest contribution to directly avoiding

CO2. Carbon2Chem converts steel mill emission gases, including the CO2 they contain, into

valuable chemicals. thyssenkrupp’s hydrogen route involves replacing coal with “green”

hydrogen as the reducing agent for blast furnaces so that in the long term no CO2 is created in

the production of steel. These technologies are being funded by the German federal

government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Under its Climate Action Program for Sustainable Solutions (CAPS) thyssenkrupp will also

systematically work to make its products carbon neutral. The Group already offers a technology

for the cement industry that permits CO2 emissions from the combustion processes to be

captured for subsequent storage or processing. In the area of sustainable mobility

thyssenkrupp is working with European partners to produce fuel from biomass. These fuels

reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90 percent compared with conventional fuels.

Other key areas include the e-mobility sector, where thyssenkrupp supplies battery production

lines and special steels for electric motors. The Group is also actively involved in the

development of energy storage solutions, for example with electrolysis systems that convert

electricity into hydrogen. These storage systems allow a constant supply of electricity from

renewables regardless of the weather.

Dr. Donatus Kaufmann, thyssenkrupp Board member responsible for technology, innovation,

sustainability, legal and compliance: “Our goals are ambitious but achievable. Our strategy for

our steel operations alone will cut production-related emissions there by 80 percent by 2050.

But if we are to achieve our climate targets we need to make significantly more use of

renewable energies. Also, there are no internationally harmonized financial incentives for

investments in CO2 abatement technologies. These are basic requirements for making a real

change.”

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