FACE - The Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe

Sustainability and climate change

FACE fully supports the transition to a low carbon economy, a climate resilient society and an environmentally responsible global population.

Aluminium is the ideal metal to accompany and accelerate this global transformation that is set to create millions of jobs and attract hundreds of billions of Euros worth of investments every year.

It is no surprise that the EU, alongside Japan, has the world’s highest per capita aluminium consumption. Aluminium use in the EU, already at more than 12 million tonnes annually, will continue growing thanks to the EU’s ambitious climate policies and the global implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Aluminium has many climate and environmentally friendly properties, such as its endless recyclability and lightness, which help decrease the lifecycle CO2 emissions of all products – an advantage that is especially important in the transport sector.

Yet, aluminium is an energy intensive industry. Therefore, it is in the interest of the European industry to ensure that the primary aluminium produced, imported and transformed in the EU has the lowest possible carbon footprint, and that at every stage of its processing, efforts have been made to reduce not only carbon emissions, but also other pollutants and waste.

A truly comprehensive EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) policy could further support the contribution of the aluminium value-chain to our sustainability goals.

As a result, FACE calls for the creation of the “Green Aluminium” EU label.

Such a label could be awarded to aluminium supplies and products with the lowest carbon footprint and the best overall environmental standards.

This way, EU transformers and end consumers will know what they are using and would be able to proudly market their contribution to both greener growth and climate-resilience.

To be effective, the label should be supported by a compulsory disclosure policy modelled on what the EU does today for food and household appliances.

European citizens expect this sort of transparency to be offered across the board.