MOSCOW (MRC) -- Germany’s chemical industry association VCI (Frankfurt) says that it sees the upcoming vote of the European Parliament on a possible CO2 emission-reduction target of 60% by 2030 as an extremely ambitious project, about which most of the questions remain unanswered, reported Chemweek.
VCI’s announcement follows a call by the EU Parliament in September for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be reduced by 60% in 2030 compared with 1990. It is also in line with an announcement by the VCI in September.
“It is completely unclear how the enormous reduction contributions from all areas of life and economic sectors will come about. We need more realism in politics as to how high we can raise the climate-protection target in the EU without the rest of the world pulling along,” says Wolfgang Gro?e Entrup, managing director at VCI.
He notes that a target as ambitious as 60% by 2030 requires the EU to reduce by five times the average amount of CO2 it has been reducing for the past 30 years. The European Commission recently announced an emission-reduction target of at least 55% by 2030.
The EU needs to show there is a way toward the 60% target, since it is not clear how it can be achieved, VCI says. Questions remain about how the EU-wide expansion of renewables and the necessary networks will be accelerated; energy-efficiency measures such as energetic building renovation can be massively ramped up; and the competitiveness of the European economy can be preserved to create jobs and invest in climate-friendly processes, Gro?e Entrup says.
The EU’s aim should be “to develop a concrete and realistic package of measures so that the necessary infrastructure can be built, climate-friendly technologies are further developed, and jobs are preserved,” Gro?e Entrup adds.
As MRC informed before, in September 2020, Shell announced that it will replace the ethylene steam cracker furnaces at its Moerdijk petrochemicals complex, The Netherlands, in a move that will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Shell will install eight new furnaces in place of 16 older units without reducing capacity at the facility. The investment significantly reduces both the site’s energy consumption and its operational greenhouse gas emissions. The CO2 emissions reduction is about 10 percent of Shell Moerdijk’s annual total.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC"s ScanPlast report, Russia"s overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, overall PP production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to 1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output.
MRC