Aluminum is essential to many everyday products – but at what environmental cost? » Yale Climate Connections

Transcript:

Aluminum is not just found in soda and beer cans. The material is used in all sorts of things – from cellphones and solar panels to electric vehicles and airplanes.

And demand for many of these products is growing rapidly.

Sartor: “So not only is demand increasing here in the United States, but it’s increasing around the world, which adds up to a whole lot more aluminum.”

Annie Sartor is with Industrious Labs, an organization focused on reducing the climate impact of aluminum and other industrial materials.

She says aluminum production requires a lot of electricity. And in places like China, where more than half the world’s aluminum is produced, much of that electricity comes from burning coal, so it creates a lot of global warming carbon pollution.

But in places where more electricity comes from renewables – for example, Canada, which uses a lot of hydropower, the climate impact is far less.

Sartor says in many areas, renewable energy is becoming cost-competitive.

Sartor: “Coal is not as cheap as it was, comparatively, around the world anymore.”

So she says there’s an opportunity for the industry to switch to using more clean energy – and limit the harm aluminum production has on the climate.

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media