Thyssenkrupp CEO Guido Kerkhoff is certain: “The threats posed by climate change affect us all. As an industrial company with operations around the globe we are in a particularly good position to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable products and processes.” Thyssenkrupp aims to be climate neutral from 2050 onwards. As early as 2030 the Group plans to cut emissions from production and outsourced energy by around 30 %. Emissions from the use of Thyssenkrupp products are to fall by 16 %by 2030. The company’s new climate strategy is based on the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015.
The targets now announced take in Thyssenkrupp’s own production operations, the energy it purchases and its products. In steel production, for example, currently two approaches to reducing CO2 emissions are pursued: The Carbon2Chem project, which is expected to be available on an industrial scale before 2030, and the so-called hydrogen route, which should take full effect by 2050 and make the biggest contribution to directly avoiding CO2. Carbon2Chem converts steel mill emission gases, including the CO2 they contain, into valuable chemicals. thyssenkrupp’s hydrogen route involves replacing coal with ”green” hydrogen as the reducing agent for blast furnaces so that in the long term no CO2 is created in the production of steel. These technologies are being funded by the German federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Under its Climate Action Program for Sustainable Solutions (CAPS) Thyssenkrupp will also systematically work to make its products carbon neutral. The Group already offers a technology for the cement industry that permits CO2 emissions from the combustion processes to be captured for subsequent storage or processing. In the area of sustainable mobility
Other key areas include the e-mobility sector, where thyssenkrupp supplies battery production lines and special steels for electric motors. The Group is also actively involved in the development of energy storage solutions, for example with electrolysis systems that convert electricity into hydrogen. These storage systems allow a constant supply of electricity from renewables regardless of the weather.
