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Carmakers emitting 74 million tonnes
of CO2, Greenpeace says
By Erin Hale
May 29, 2023
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[File: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]
Taipei,
Taiwan – The world’s top automakers are generating an
estimated 74 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year due to the
industry’s failure to decarbonise its steel supply chain, according to
a new report by Greenpeace.
The automobile industry is heavily dependent on steel as a key
manufacturing material and the top 16 automakers used an estimated
39-65 million tonnes of steel in 2022, the environmental advocacy
group said in the report.
Toyota, the world’s top automaker, used 6.3 million tonnes of steel in
2022 alone, followed by Volkswagen with 5.2 million tonnes and
Hyundai-Kia with 5.2 million tonnes, according to the report released
on Thursday.
That dependency has come at a price to the planet, according to
Greenpeace, due to the large amount of carbon emissions in the
process, pushing the world’s temperatures ever closer to the 1.5
degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold that climate
scientists say will spell disaster.
“Automakers are steering us toward climate catastrophe by failing to
decarbonise their steel supply chains,” Greenpeace East Asia senior
analyst Wenjie Liu said.
“Automotive steel has a massive carbon footprint, but major automakers
like Hyundai, Volkswagen, and Toyota have not disclosed their steel
emissions. We need automakers to both consume less steel and to drive
the transition to zero-carbon steelmaking.”
Steel manufacturing produced 573 million tonnes of CO2 last year,
roughly the same annual output as Australia, and its heavy carbon
footprint will not change without more involvement from the auto
industry, which consumed 16 percent of global steel last year, Liu
said.
In addition to Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai-Kia, the list of
companies assessed by Greenpeace includes General Motors, Stellantis,
Ford, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, Geely, BMW, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, SAIC
Motor, Great Wall Motor, and Mazda.
None of the companies discloses the carbon emissions from its steel
use and only a handful disclose their annual steel consumption, which
means emissions figures are rough estimates.
The environmental watchdog acknowledged that some companies,
particularly European automakers, had made efforts to decarbonise
their steel supply chains, but said their goals remained modest.
More effort is also needed in East Asia, home to 60 percent of the
world’s steel production and few automaker-led initiatives, Greenpeace
said.
“If they are serious about decarbonisation, by 2030, automakers must
halve their emissions from steel. The first step is the disclosure of
steel-related emissions, but we unfortunately haven’t seen this happen
yet,” Liu said.
“Automakers should also issue green steel procurement commitments,
which would signal steelmakers to invest in new technology. In the
longer term, automakers must achieve net zero emissions across their
supply chains, both via reduced use of steel and a full transition to
zero-carbon steel.”
Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai-Kia and the other carmakers named in the
report did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
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