Climate Change: Impacts of the global aluminium cycle

A 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which would bring levels to below 2000 levels, cannot be reached if developing countries’ patterns of aluminium stocks follow those of industrialized economies, reports a study published recently in Nature Climate Change.

Gang Liu, Colton Bangs and Daniel Müller from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology simulated the future global aluminium cycle and explored its associated emission pathways and mitigation potentials. They found that the 50% reduction target can only be reached if future global per-capita aluminium stocks saturate at 200 kg, a level much lower than that present in major industrialized countries, which ranges between 400 and 600 kg. This indicates that traditional mitigation strategies focusing on emission-intensity reduction in primary production such as carbon capture and storage, should be complemented with innovative approaches aiming to reach the same or higher level of service with smaller stocks of materials in use, for example, lightweight design and optimization of components.

Stock dynamics and emission pathways of the global aluminium cycle

www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1698.html

Gang Liu, gang.liu@ntnu.no

Daniel Müller, daniel.mueller@ntnu.no

Norwegian University of Science and Technology