Climate Protection and Energy Efficiency
With the Paris Climate Agreement, the international community committed to limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. At the Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November 2021, this ambition was for the first time backed up with concrete reduction requirements for greenhouse gas emissions. By 2030, for example, global CO2 emissions must be cut by 45 % versus 2010, and net-zero emissions must be achieved by 2050. Meanwhile, in Germany, the “Climate Protection Plan 2050” currently sets out the interim goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 % compared with the base year of 1990 by 2030. Industry is expected to contribute to this with a reduction of between 49 % and 51 %.
As of this year, LANXESS has joined the growing list of companies that have set themselves science-based targets to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The validation of our commitment by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) indicates that we are on the right track.
Since it was founded, LANXESS has made substantial progress towards its goal of becoming more environmentally friendly. Between 2004 and 2018, we halved our greenhouse gas emissions from around 6.5 million metric tons of CO2e to about 3.2 million tons.
In light of this, it was therefore time to set new, ambitious medium and long-term targets and thus fulfill our responsibility as a global specialty chemicals company: LANXESS is to be climate neutral in terms of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040. By 2030, we aim to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions achieved in 2018 by more than half to around 1.3 million metric tons of CO2e. We will thus have achieved an 80 % reduction compared to the emissions when LANXESS was founded. To measure our climate-relevant emissions, we collect data on emissions of greenhouse gases defined in the Kyoto Protocol and calculate their greenhouse effect in comparison to carbon dioxide. We include emissions from our own production (Scope 1) and from external energy sources (Scope 2) in the calculation. 2022, LANXESS set a target for indirect emissions from the upstream and downstream supply chain (Scope 3) for the first time. The Group intends to make the entire supply chain climate-neutral by 2050.
Our journey to climate neutrality
- We drastically reduce emissions from internal sources.
- We reduce our specific energy requirement.
- We purchase very low-emission or climate-neutral energy.
