Aluminum Emission Reporting Guidance

The Aluminum Emission Reporting Guidance, published by RMI in April 2023, provides a standardized methodology for aluminum producers to report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the product level. The guide aims to increase transparency and enable the development of a market for low-carbon aluminum by establishing fixed system boundaries and requiring the use of primary data to ensure comparability across the supply chain.

• The aluminum sector is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over 1.1 gigaton of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2e) in 2018, which represents approximately 2% of global anthropogenic emissions.
• The guidance establishes two fixed system boundaries to ensure comparability regardless of a producer's vertical integration: a 'benchmarking boundary' covering processes from bauxite mining to the final cast-house, and a 'full boundary' that extends to semi-fabrication to capture cradle-to-gate emissions.
• To prevent producers from relying solely on scrap to lower emissions intensity, the guidance requires the separate reporting of 'mine-to-smelter cast-house emissions intensity' for the primary aluminum input used in products.
• The guidance mandates the disclosure of the share of scrap-based content and specifically requires a separate disclosure for post-consumer scrap to encourage the recycling of end-of-life products over pre-consumer scrap.
• Because of industry disagreement on how to treat pre-consumer scrap emissions, the guidance requires dual reporting of benchmarking Product Carbon Footprints (PCF) using both the 'cut-off approach' (treating scrap as burden-free) and the 'co-product allocation approach' (assigning emissions based on mass).
• To ensure data reliability and drive investment in low-emissions technology, companies must report the 'share of primary data' used in their emissions calculations, defined as data provided directly by the entity responsible for the emissions.
• The guidance provides a decision hierarchy for sourcing renewable energy to maximize decarbonization, prioritizing physical transitions of self-generation facilities, followed by direct sourcing from off-site generators, and finally unbundled Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs) as a last resort.
• To avoid 'greenwashing' and ensure long-term asset transition, the guidance explicitly recommends against using the mass balance approach to allocate renewable energy emission reductions across a product portfolio.
• The framework requires the subtraction of emissions associated with intermediate products not used in aluminum production, such as non-calcined hydrates from refineries and surplus anodes from manufacturing facilities, to reflect actual product emissions.
• The guidance identifies perfluorocarbons (PFCs), specifically tetrafluoromethane (CF4) and hexafluoroethane (C2F6), as critical GHGs emitted during the 'anode effect' in the smelting process, with CF4 having a 100-year GWP 6,630 times that of CO2.

APA

Liu, W., & Chalasani, S. (2023). Aluminum Emission Reporting Guidance. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2023/06/aluminum_guidance_public_consultation.pdf

Chicago

Liu, Wenjuan, and Sravan Chalasani. Aluminum Emission Reporting Guidance. RMI, 2023. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2023/06/aluminum_guidance_public_consultation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Liu |first1=Wenjuan |last2=Chalasani |first2=Sravan |title=Aluminum Emission Reporting Guidance |publisher=RMI |date=April 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2023/06/aluminum_guidance_public_consultation.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{liu2023aluminum, author = {Liu, Wenjuan and Chalasani, Sravan}, title = {{Aluminum Emission Reporting Guidance}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2023/06/aluminum_guidance_public_consultation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }