Interpretation of the National Standard for Aluminum Carbon Footprint Accounting [SMM Aluminum Industry Conference]

On April 17, at the AICE 2025 SMM (20th) Aluminum Industry Conference and Aluminum Industry Expo — Aluminum Industry Chain Sustainable Development Forum, co-hosted by SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd., SMM Metal Trading Center, and Shandong Aisi Information Technology Co., Ltd., and co-organized by Zhongyifeng Jinyi (Suzhou) Technology Co., Ltd. and Lezhi County Qianrun Investment Service Co., Ltd., Zhang Shuchao, Executive Deputy Director of the National Light Metal Quality Inspection and Testing Center and Chief Engineer of Analysis and Testing at Chalco Group, shared with the attendees the interpretation of the national standard for carbon footprint accounting in aluminum production. 1. Relevant Background Relevant Background — Global Climate Change ► Extreme Weather: Rising temperatures, glacier melting, sea level rise, extreme weather, and ecological degradation. ► Main Causes of Climate Change: Greenhouse Gases (GHG) ► The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has conducted six assessments. In terms of "human impact on the climate system," the terms used were: possible, likely, very likely, extremely likely, and the sixth IPCC assessment, released in 2021, stated: unequivocal. ► Types of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) ► Global Warming Potential (GWP) of Major Greenhouse Gases To uniformly measure the relative impact of different greenhouse gases on climate change, the "Global Warming Potential" (GWP) value is generally used for evaluation. The greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide is set as "1" (i.e., GWP=1). If the greenhouse effect of another greenhouse gas of the same mass is χ times that of carbon dioxide, then GWP=χ. ► United Nations Climate Change Conferences It listed the United Nations Climate Change Conferences from 1992 to 2025, such as: 1992: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; 1997: Kyoto Protocol, Tokyo, Japan; 2009: Copenhagen Accord, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2015: Paris Agreement, Paris, France; 2024: Baku, Azerbaijan, initiation of the global carbon market; 2025: COP30, Belém, Brazil, etc. ► China's Actions to Address Climate Change 2011: "12th Five-Year Plan for Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions," with a 17% annual reduction; 2013: Online trading launched in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hubei, Guangdong, and Shenzhen; 2016: "13th Five-Year Plan for Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions," with an 18% annual reduction; 2017: "National Carbon Emission Trading Market Construction Plan (Power Generation Industry)," officially launching the trading system; 2018: The Department of Climate Change was transferred from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment; 2019: First-time requirement for verification of monitoring plan enforcement for key emission enterprises; 2020: Release of "Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emission Accounting and Reporting for Power Generation Facilities (Draft for Comments)," unifying accounting boundaries with quota compliance boundaries, reducing the workload for enterprises; July 16, 2021: National carbon trading market opened; 2024: Cement, steel, and aluminum were included. Relevant Background — Domestic Actions Carbon Footprint: Selective, substitutable; Carbon Trading; Energy Use Rights; Emission Rights. Relevant Background — Domestic Emissions 2024: Primary energy consumption: 5.97 billion mt of standard coal (2.62 CO2/t); Coal: 4.85 billion mt, including 110 million mt of imports; Crude oil: 750 million mt, including 536 million mt of imports; Natural gas: 430 billion m3, including 180.7 billion m3 of imports; Cement production: 1.825 billion mt; Steel production: 1.005 billion mt; Non-ferrous metals industry: Emissions accounted for about 7%; Aluminum: 44.005 million mt; Copper: 13.64 million mt; Magnesium: 937,000 mt; Silicon metal: 4.975 million mt; Non-CO2 emissions: 1.1 billion mt; Total emissions: ? 2. Standard Content Standard Content — Relevant Basis ISO 14064-1:2018: Specification and guidance for the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals at the organizational level ISO 14064-2:2019: Specification and guidance for the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals at the project level ISO 14064-3:2019: Specification and guidance for the validation and verification of greenhouse gas assertions ISO 14065:2020: Requirements for greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies ISO 14067:2018: Greenhouse gases — Product carbon footprint — Requirements and guidelines for quantification ISO 14068-1:2023: Greenhouse gas management and related activities – Carbon neutrality GB/T 32154 series: Aluminum industry: GB/T 32151.4-2024: Requirements for greenhouse gas emission accounting and reporting — Part 4: Aluminum smelters GB/T 24068-2024: Greenhouse gases — Product carbon footprint — Requirements and guidelines for quantification "Guidelines for Verification of Enterprise Greenhouse Gas Emission Reports (Trial)" GB/T 44905-2024 "Greenhouse Gases — Product Carbon Footprint — Quantification Methods and Requirements for Aluminum" ► ISO 14064: A standard designed for carbon management at the organizational level, focusing on helping enterprises account for, report, and verify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Its goal is to help organizations establish a systematic carbon management framework, support the implementation of emission reduction projects, and ensure the reliability of carbon emission data. ► ISO 14067: Focuses on the carbon footprint assessment of a single product, helping enterprises quantify carbon emissions at various stages of the product life cycle (from raw material procurement to use and disposal). The core of this standard is the "product carbon footprint label," which provides enterprises with a transparent and precise tool to showcase the environmental friendliness of their products. Standard Content — Carbon Footprint It elaborates from the perspectives of general products (intermediate products) and end-use products. Standard Content — Aluminum Electrolysis Process ► Aluminum Electrolysis Process Diagram It also introduced the content of the standard content — chapter sections. Standard Content — Scope The system boundary of aluminum products is "from cradle to gate," i.e., from bauxite resource mining to aluminum product output, including bauxite mining and beneficiation, alumina production, prebaked anode production, aluminum electrolysis production, and aluminum casting, as well as upstream processes such as the production and transportation of auxiliary materials and energy (fuel, electricity). ► Auxiliary Materials and Energy Acquisition: Starts from the extraction of natural materials and ends at the production plant. Auxiliary Materials: Lime, caustic soda, chemicals, petroleum coke, coal tar pitch, fluoride salts, etc.; Energy: Gasoline, diesel, heavy oil, coal, natural gas, electricity, heat, etc. Aluminum production, bauxite, alumina, prebaked anode, aluminum, aluminum casting, trade-offs, impact less than 1%, total trade-offs not exceeding 5%, cathode carbon blocks. Standard Content — Data Classification It introduced on-site data/background data, primary data/secondary data, etc. Standard Content — Data Quality and Evaluation It elaborated on data quality, start and end times, geographical boundaries, technical scope, completeness, representativeness, consistency, information uncertainty, sources, data evaluation, etc. Standard Content — Inventory and Accounting ► Life Cycle Inventory: Data collection, data validation, data allocation, data trade-offs, inventory calculation ► Accounting Standard Content — Result Interpretation and Report 》Click to view the special report on AICE 2025 SMM (20th) Aluminum Industry Conference and Aluminum Industry Expo