Climate action

Umicore supports the goals of the Paris Agreement: limiting global warming to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. Umicore 2030 RISE strategy is designed to accelerate the transition to a sustainable future, and includes a climate action plan, with ambitious targets, despite the exponential growth projected. That’s why we  had our 2030 targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Scope 1 & 2 emissions

In 2019, Umicore’s scope 1 GHG emissions amount to 389 kTon CO2e and scope 2 GHG emissions are 403 kTon CO2e. We commit to carbon neutrality for Scope 1 + Scope 2 GHG emissions by 2035, with intermediate milestones of already reaching a 20% reduction in GHG emissions by 2025 and a 50% reduction by 2030. 

In addition to our net zero target, we are also committed to operating fully on renewable electricity in Europe by 2025.  

Net-zero scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2035

100% renewable electricity in EU by 2025

Scope 3 emissions

The majority of Umicore's CO2 footprint consists of scope 3 emissions, amounting to 8.3 million tons CO2e in 2019. The upstream emissions linked to purchased goods amounts to 7.3 million tons CO2e in 2019. Umicore has set an ambitious target to reduce the carbon intensity of purchased materials by 42% by 2030. To this end, we will not increase the Scope 3 emissions of our raw materials, despite the exponential growth projected in our 2030 strategy. 

Reduce the carbon intensity of purchased materials by 42% by 2030

To reach our goal we are implementing a number of levers to reduce our upstream emissions, such as increasing our internal reuse of recycled metals, increasing secondary materials in our input mix, sourcing from decarbonizing and low-carbon suppliers, and integrating our services upstream. 

Avoided emissions (Scope 4 emissions)

Decarbonization for all scopes is a key priority for Umicore, and while Scope 1, 2 and 3 reduction is at the heart of our company ambitions; ​our products are avoiding CO2 emissions during their lifetime. We call these scope 4 emissions. 

By addressing scope 4 emissions, Umicore can not only reduce its own environmental impact but also influence the emissions of its suppliers and customers, thereby contributing to a more sustainable value chain.  Find out how much we avoided in our latest annual report. 

Read more about our journey to decarbonization