A can-load of energy

Gladstone makes enough aluminium for almost 40 billion cans a year

Not surprisingly, Rio Tinto is growing worried about its CO2 emissions. They don’t fit well with its new environmentally- and socially-aware image. And even though Australia is currently a Kyoto refusenik, the company reckons the government will soon sign up to future emissions reduction targets.

So what is it doing? Last year it announced plans to build a new smelter in Abu Dhabi, powered by natural gas. Rio Tinto is not alone. As its managing director pointed out: “The Middle East is fast becoming a key region in the global aluminium smelting business.”

Why so? It’s a no-brainer. As the company’s head of climate change told me when I asked about the new geography of aluminium smelting: “Abu Dhabi is outside the Kyoto protocol.” It has no emissions targets. Silly me.

New Scientist