AICM Releases 2022 Sustainability Report Multinational enterprises welcome new green opportunities for China's "dual carbon"

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to actively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality
.
On December 7, the International Association of Chemical Manufacturers (AICM) released its fourth sustainable development report, AICM2022 Sustainable Development Report (hereinafter referred to as the Report), introducing the positive role played by the chemical industry, especially multinational enterprises, in achieving the "dual carbon" goal and sustainable development.
As well as the industry's energy-saving and carbon-reduction potential and green development opportunities
.

"Double carbon" provides new impetus for the industry

Haotian Bai, Chairman of AICM and President and CEO of Air Liquide China, Anting Wang, Director of AIM and President of Clariant's Global Vice President China and Asia Pacific, Fuliang Xia, Director of ICS, President of Greater China and Head of Smart Materials Business Unit of Evonik (China) Investment Co.
, Ltd.
, Xiaoyu Zhang, Director of ICS and President of Arkema Greater China, Dr.
Jianfeng Lou, Director of AIMING and Chairman and President of BASF Greater China, Dai Wei, Executive Director of AICM, attended the online press conference and jointly released the Report
.

The report believes that under China's "dual carbon" goal, chemical enterprises face many opportunities, which will help enhance the image of the chemical industry, increase the demand for green products, and promote the sustainable development of
the industry.

In recent years, the concept of green development has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the demand for green and low-carbon technologies and green and low-carbon products in the chemical industry has grown rapidly
.
Under the dual incentives of market demand and policy measures, the industry will face new opportunities
.
According to AICM's survey of member companies, 92% of the member companies surveyed believe that China's "dual carbon" goals can bring new opportunities
to the chemical industry.

The promotion of the "dual carbon" goal will help the chemical industry establish a new image
of green development.
Ms.
Zhang Xiaoyu, Director of ICS and President of Arkema Greater China, introduced the content of the report that the low-carbon development of chemical industry is an inevitable trend and requirement
in the future.
Sustainability is seen as one of the main drivers of growth and value, and has built a good reputation for the industry by abandoning traditional high-polluting and energy-intensive production methods, increasing investment in renewable energy projects, and focusing on value chain emissions
.

By formulating carbon emission standards under certain constraints, the "dual carbon" strategy creates new opportunities for sustainable development for the chemical industry and contributes to the application and promotion of
advanced technologies.
ICON enterprises believe that the green requirements for industrial structure and technical level will benefit enterprises with technical advantages in the early stage, thereby raising industry barriers and eliminating backward production capacity
with high pollution and high emissions in the industry.
At the same time, the chemical industry, as a key link to undertake consumer goods from raw materials, enterprises with the layout of the whole industry chain will have the opportunity to create higher product added value and transform green concepts into competitive advantages
.

The chemical industry is the basic industry of the national economy, related to the development of all walks of life, green and low-carbon chemical products are not only the "postcard" of chemical enterprises, but also can help downstream industries and users carbon emission reduction
.
ICON companies said that whether from the carbon emissions of the products themselves or the efficiency of product use, downstream customers have put forward higher requirements
.
Chemical companies have provided low-carbon solutions for downstream customers, and made efforts in architectural coatings, new energy materials, catalysts and other aspects to assist downstream customers to achieve the goal of "dual carbon"
.
These emerging products have brought a new blue ocean to the green transformation of the chemical industry and provided new impetus
for the green transformation of the chemical industry.

Take multiple measures to fully promote carbon emission reduction

With the continuous improvement of the top-level design and the gradual clarification of the path to achieve carbon neutrality, chemical enterprises must make strategic transformation to adapt to the requirements of
the times.
In line with domestic and international commitments on climate change and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, AICM members actively set carbon reduction targets to demonstrate to the society the ambition of chemical companies to address climate change
.

The AICM survey found that 63% of the surveyed member companies carry out carbon verification in China every year, all the surveyed member companies have set carbon targets or other sustainable development goals at the group level, and more than 92% of the surveyed member companies regard increasing investment in environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction as one of
the tasks in China.

According to the report, energy-related emissions are the most important source of carbon emissions for chemical companies, of which external energy procurement and the burning of fossil fuels in factories have the greatest
impact on carbon emission reduction 。 In order to meet the requirements of policy regulation, AICM member companies have taken a number of energy efficiency measures to reduce the overall energy consumption of enterprises, mainly including technical carbon emission reduction (technology or equipment upgrading to reduce energy consumption), shutting down or optimizing some devices and factories with high energy consumption; Build energy recovery systems such as waste heat recovery systems to reduce invalid energy waste in the process; Add frequency conversion equipment, sensor linkage equipment, etc.
to improve the energy efficiency of process equipment; Improve the refinement rate of energy management through information management systems such as energy platform management systems
.
In order to reduce energy-related emissions, some chemical companies are also trying to install renewable energy generation systems on their sites, and explore other ways to gradually clean the purchased energy
.

In addition, increasing the proportion of low-carbon raw materials is one of the important ways to achieve low-carbon development of chemical industry, such as using light hydrocarbons and natural gas as raw materials for the production of methanol and low-carbon olefins, and using renewable biomass or recycled materials as raw materials to produce bulk chemicals and fine chemicals
.
and gradually reduce carbon emissions generated in the upstream and downstream of the value chain through internal and external management, and carry out basic research on carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage applications
.

We call on all parties to participate in improving the emission reduction mechanism

Achieving carbon neutrality is a systematic work that has a bearing on the overall situation and requires the joint action
of the whole society.
The relevant person in charge of AICM said that the good development of the chemical industry is inseparable from the efforts of enterprises and the government, and how to fully consider the particularity of the chemical industry, promote industry-leading technology, guide enterprises to reduce emissions scientifically and promote the sustainable development of the chemical industry when planning the path of carbon neutrality is a common challenge
faced by the management agency and AICM and other relevant parties.

In terms of promoting the chemical industry to achieve the goal of "dual carbon", the report puts forward a number of specific suggestions, hoping that China will accelerate its integration with international standards in the field of "dual carbon", including improving the green power trading mechanism, increasing the supply of renewable energy, improving the carbon market, carbon emission quota mechanism, and formulating green and low-carbon product certification standards, etc.
, to help enterprises implement energy structure transformation and promote the green upgrading
of energy consumption.

In addition, some of the interviewed members also hope that local management agencies will give full play to synergies by establishing cross-departmental working mechanisms when carrying out planning, systematically and comprehensively improve local regulations and standards, clarify the policy basis in the law enforcement process, and guide enterprises to operate in compliance under the background of "dual carbon", so as to promote regional scientific and effective carbon neutrality
.

The relevant person in charge of AICM said that AICM is committed to promoting the initiative of responsible care in China, and at the same time actively shares international best practices with stakeholders in China's chemical industry on behalf of member companies, and calls on policymakers to formulate multi-field scientific policies based on cost, technology and risk control to support the sustainable development of
the chemical industry.
AICM will continue to play the role of a bridge between foreign chemical enterprises and policymakers, participate in the construction of a multi-party collaborative carbon neutrality realization mechanism, and jointly promote the green transformation
of China's chemical industry.